It was one of the first purely residential educational institutions set up either by the government or the public in India. Over the years it gave rise to a new educated class of Indians, who were active in the political system of the British India. When viceroy to India Lord Curzon visited the college in 1901, he praised the work which was carried on and called it of “sovereign importance”. On 7 January 1877, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (MAO) in the city of Aligarh, present state of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India.  Patterned the college after Oxford and Cambridge universities that he had visited on a trip to England, his objective was to build a college in tune with the British education system but without compromising its Islamic values. And later, Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College became the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 1920. Now, it is spread around 470 hectares, offers more than 300 courses of traditional and modern branches of education. It has over 28,000 students who reside in many halls and hostels.

The beautiful campus has around 60 heritage buildings and structures, many of them are the finest examples of Indo-Islamic architecture and many buildings reflected with marvels of British architecture. Including Jama Masjid (Jama Mosque) is one of the oldest structures established in the campus of the premier educational institute. The construction of mosque was started in 1879 by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. The mosque is almost prototype of the elegant Jama Masjid of Shahjahanabad, Delhi. The only difference being in scale and magnitude, and unique Strachey Hall was among the first few buildings to come up on the Campus. It was named after British Indian Civil Servant Sir John Strachey. Victoria Gate, once, the main entrance of College and named after Queen Victoria of England in 1914. There are unique Museums and Galleries in the campus, houses numerous archaeological objects and rare sculptures, paintings, carved stone pieces and pillars. Let’s take a heritage walk of this amazing historical campus.