Fatehpur Sikri

Fatehpur Sikri is another World Heritage Site in Agra. This one was built by the Mughal Emperor, Akbar in the 16th century. In an earlier post I called him "Akbar the Great" but I have since then worked out that "Akbar" means "great"(as in Allah akbar--God is great). It seems a bit redundant to call him "Great the Great." I guess he had another name in his childhood but I don't know it. He built a Persian tomb for his father, Humayun, in what is now Delhi. He built Fatehpur Sikri as a palace and governmental seat here to be near the tomb of a Sufi Moslem saint named Salim Chistie.

Touring the complex, which included administrative buildings and religiously appropriate living rooms for Akbar's Moslem, Hindu, and Christian wives, I imagined the now empty Fatehpur buzzing with the life of the court.

Akbar would have sat in his throne on top of this pillar while his ministers sat on the balcony around the edge of the building. Guards, and perhaps supplicants, would have been on the floor where I'm standing to take the picture.

Fatehpur was probably abandoned when the water supply proved to be unstable or insufficient. Water features were an important part of the palace.

This fellow didn't seem concerned about water supply or quality. I don't know that the tank was originally built for swimming or how he got in. He wanted a tip for letting us take pictures.

I didn't think I needed to tip him for doing what he was obviously planning on doing anyway.

The massive and imposing gate leading into the walled enclosure that contains a Masjid (Mosque) and the shrine to Salim Chistie.

As with all holy places in India, we left our shoes at the gate. To enter the shrine, we had to cover our heads. If you didn't have a scarf or hat, you were given a plastic version of the head cover the young man below is wearing.

It was actually fairly crowded inside, but I got lucky with this shot. It's a space that feels very reverent and holy, even with lots of westerners in plastic hats snapping pictures.