Fatehpur Sikri in Rajasthan

Fatehpur Sikri in Rajasthan is located 40 km west of Agra and an excellent daytrip (unless you want to continue to Jaipur) from Agra.

The city took 15 years building by Mughal emperor Akbar. The building started in 1570 and served as the empire's capital from 1571 until 1585. It was abandoned 14 years later because the water supply was not sufficient to sustain the population. There is much to be visited, including a palace, a mosque and many other monuments.

The Fatehpur Sikri palace

The Rajasthan site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site but the site itself is a ghost town. Just at the entrance of the site there's a little village where people mainly live on the tourist industry. The town itself is a ghost town.

There's a lot of buildings preserved in Fatehpur Sikri.

Some of the important buildings in this city, both religious and secular are:

• Anup Talao: A tank with a central platform and four bridges leading up to it.
• Buland Darwaza: One of the gateways to the Jama Masjid,
• Diwan-i-Am : A pavilion-like multi-bayed rectangular structure fronting a large open space.
• Diwan-i-Khas: Famous for its central pillar with thirty-six voluted supporting a circular platform for Akbar. It is here that Akbar had representatives of different religions discuss their faiths.
• Hujra-i-Anup Talao: Said to be the residence of Akbar's Muslim wife, although this is disputed due to its small size.
• Jama Masjid: The mosque, built in the manner of Indian mosques, with liwans around a central courtyard.

• Mariam-uz-Zamani's Palace: The building of Akbar's wife shows Gujarati influence and is built around a courtyard, with special care being taken to ensure privacy.
• Naubat Khana: Near the entry, where important arrivals are announced.
• Pachisi Court: A square marked out as a large sized board game, the precursor to modern day Ludo game where people served as the playing pieces.
• Panch Mahal: A five-storied palatial structure. The bottom floor has 176 intricately carved columns.

• Birbal's House: The house of Akbar's favorite minister, who was a Hindu. Notable features of the building are the horizontal sloping sunshades or chajjas and the brackets which support them.
• Tomb of Salim Chisti: A white marble encased tomb within the Jama Masjid's courtyard.

Bulund Darwaza, the spectacular gate of Fatehpur Sikri

Getting there and staying

Fatepuh Sikri is 40 km west of Agra. My advice is to stay here a night before continuing to Jaipur (190km). You might want to go via Karauli. Here is a spectacular city palace to be visited. Karauli is still 160 km from Jaipur but you can have a stop in Gangapur (80km) with some nice temples and the Gangapur dam.

Just as I said, a ghost town, and even as we speak, most of the city is still a ghost town as most of the tourist visiting the site, only spend a short time in the ruined city. It is however worth to explore the backstreets and have a look outside the city walls:

Back to the top of Fatehpur Sikri in Rajasthan

Continue traveling to Agra and the Taj Mahal or Jaipur

Back to traveling in India

Back to the Bicycle Adventures.com homepage

Custom Search