Agra and Fatehpur Sikri

The Taj Mahal:

Shah Jahan, the fifth ruler of the Mughal Empire, had the world famous white marble tomb built between 1632 and 1648 as the final resting place for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, who had died in childbirth in 1631. After the death of Shah Jahan, his remains were also buried in the tomb.

Before that time, the founder of the Taj was thrown in the prison of the nearby Fort by his son, where he could only view his creation through the windows. The Mogul dynasty was in the habit of building tomb monuments in symmetrically landscaped gardens for its members. Gardens in the Islamic tradition symbolize paradise and the Mogols attempted to create a heavenly home on earth for their deceased. The large scale and aesthetic refinement of these structures also had to underline the luster of their rule. 

The Taj Mahal is not as usual in the middle of the garden, but on a raised platform on the banks of the Yamuna River in Agra and dominates the surrounding area. Four freestanding minarets occupy the corners of the platform and give the structure a three-dimensional reference. The Taj Mahal is flanked by two identical - in contrasting red sandstone - buildings, the mosque and the guest house. Between the mausoleum and the main gate of the complex, according to the Persian chahar bagh pattern, the garden is divided into four equal areas by channels.

The mausoleum is praised for the perfect symmetry, the refined decorations in the form of calligraphies from the Koran, the marble reliefs and the inlaid stonework and not least because of the subtle play of light, which always gives the building a different look. Unfortunately you can not see the real tombs of the two lovers. Shah Jahan succeeded in his ambition to create a monument for the centuries. The Taj Mahal is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world and a symbol of India. In 2007, the Taj Mahal was voted one of the seven new wonders of the world while it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

The building is visited annually by millions of visitors. For many of them, the mausoleum is above all a romantic ode to love. From the park "Mehtab Bagh" on the other side of the river you have a beautiful face from the back of the Taj Mahal.

The fort of Agra:

Agra Fort is one of the most admirable Mogol fortresses in India and is often "forgotten" and/or overlooked with the presence of the Taj Mahal complex, 2 kilometers away. In the year 1565 construction began on the Yamuna river by Mogolkeizer Akbar.

Until the reign of his son-in-law Shah Jahan was regularly added and especially in his favorite stone type; white marble. The fort was initially built for military purposes but was soon set up as a palace. Ironically, builder "Shah Jahan" would live in it for eight years because it was his prison.

The palace alias fort has a variety of buildings, all to be seen and is surrounded by a 2.5 km wall that is about 20 meters high. 

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Fatehpur Sikri:

At about 40 km from Agra is the ghost town Fatehpur Sikri (city of victory located at Sikri). The emperor built the city in honor of Muslim Sufi saint Salim Chishti. Akbarde Grote had no successor to the throne, but Salim Chishti predicted that he would have three sons.

The prediction indeed came true and the Mogol leader started construction in Sikri, the village near the place where the saint had lived before his death in 1571. It was the capital of the Mogul Empire from 1571 to 1585 and because it was a ceremonial capital , the city was never strengthened. 

Akbar had a beautiful mausoleum built for Salim Chishti. A very special building is the Ibadat Khanna (house of worship), where interreligious dialogues have been held since 1580 under the direction of Emperor Akbar. From 1582, the Christians also participated, represented by several Roman Catholic Jesuits. The Ibadat Khanna was probably the Diwan-i-Khass (room for private audiences) at the same time.

It took many years to build Fatehpur Sikri, but in 1585, only a few years after being inhabited for the first time, the city was abandoned because of a shortage of drinking water. Fatehpur Sikri is unique in its design and architecture because it is assumed that the city expresses the personality and principles of Akbar. You can view numerous beautiful palaces, gates, tombs, courtyards and ruins (for example from an authentic caravanserai). Many people visit the site on a day trip from Agra but you can also stay overnight in the nearby city. 

Other attractions:

• Chini-ka-Rauza is a Persian style tomb about one kilometer north of the Itimad-ud-Daulah tomb. In Sikandra, a suburb of Agra, is the mausoleum of Akbar, the largest of the Mogul emperors.

The current city of Agra was founded in 1503 by Sikandar Lodi, the sultan of Delhi. The city was meant as a stronghold against the sultans of Malwa. Agra only really became important under the Mogols. They exchanged Agra and Delhi as the location of their residence. Babur (reigned 1526 - 1530) ruled from Agra, but his son Humayun (reigned until 1556) had a preference for Delhi.

Akbar (1556 - 1605) resided in Agra, a decade after he had a new capital built nearby, in Fatehpur Sikri. Because of the drying up of the wells there the emperor was forced to return to Agra. The city was then named after the emperor Akbarabad. In 1580 he sent a mission to Tibet to investigate the source of the Ganges. In Agra there were also a few Jesuits that year, as well as a few decades after that.

From the beginning of the 16th century they undertook trips from Agra to Tibet or they came back to this city. Akbar and his successor Jehangir (1605 - 1627) had the Red Fort built and within the surrounding wall various beautiful gardens and palaces.

The construction projects of the Mogols reached a climax under Shah Jahan (1627 - 1658). Within the Red Fort he created palaces and gardens that far exceeded the projects of his father and grandfather. The most famous building project of Shah Jahan, however, is the tomb of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj Mahal, which was 7 km outside of Agra. Agra was at that time the capital of the Mogul Empire and with 660,000 inhabitants one of the largest cities in the world.

The banks of the Yamuna were already dotted with dozens of palaces and gardens for the elite of the Mogul Empire. In the second part of his reign, however, Shah Jahan moved his capital to Delhi, where he had a new city built under the name of Shahjahanabad. In 1761 the Jats, a military order that damaged many monuments (including the Taj). The Maharajas took over in 1770, followed by the British in 1803. Agra was abandoned as administrative capital for Allahabad, which forced the city to continue as a heavy industrial city.

It was only when the city was "rediscovered" by tourism that the harsh chemicals were cast aside.