Fatehpur Sikri and places around

Ashwini — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:07:55 +0000

Fathepur Sikri which is around 50km from Agra was the capital of Mughal King Akbar.”Sikri” was the abode of a Sufi saint named Salim Chisti, to whom Akbar had prayed for an heir. When Jogha Bhai, Akbar’s wife gave birth to his son Jahangir in 1569, Akbar built a tomb in honor of the saint and decided that he would built a grand new capital for the Mughal Empire in Sikri, to be called as Fatehpur Sikri.Fathe means victory in Arabic.It seems that Akbar took great interest in building this architectural marvel.But due to lack of water supply the city was abandoned after 15 years. Some of the great buildings of Mughal period could be seen here.
Buland Darwaza, a high gateway (176feet height) which celebrates Akbar’s conquest of Gujarat.

Buland Darwaza

A beautiful white marble tomb of saint Salim Chisti.People from different community pray here.There is also a ritual of tying a thread at the marble windows of this Dargah in order to have one’s wishes fulfilled and, consequently, many threads can be seen to be tied there.

Tomb of Saint Salim Christi

Window of Dargha which is full of threads

Qawwali,music of sufis

Other monuments of interest are :
Panchmahal a 5 storied building is built in Persian style and it was mainly for the royal ladies of the family.
Jodhabai’ s Palace which is the largest of all the palaces in Fatehpur Sikri.
Diwan-e-Aam and Diwan-e-Khas halls used by kings to address the audience.

Guide also pointed out many spots where the movie Pardes ( Sharukh’s) and Jodha Akbar have been shooted!

Some tips to keep in mind before you visit the place :
Its better if you go with local guides/conducted tourists from Agra.Local people/guides near fort do not know how to behave with tourists and they will try their best to get a good amount of money from you.
I also believe that the guide we hired didn’t show all the buildings to us.Initially he said 300 and after bargain he agreed for 100 bucks.For most of the people guiding tourists is a part time job here but they are too greedy.
Summers would be very bad.Carrying a hat,cool glasses and drinking water would be really helpful.

Humayun’s Tomb New Delhi

Ashwini — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:07:04 +0000

Humayun’s Tomb or Makbara (as they call in Urdu/Hindi) is one among the beautiful historical monuments of NewDelhi.This was the first Mughal building built with gardens and it has inspired several major Mughal architectures in India including TajMahal.
The tomb has been built by Humayun’s wife Hazi Begum. It is built of red sandstone with decorative white marble inlay. The main building is dome shaped and is raised on a large stage[ which is very much similar to TajMahal]. The stage is around 17 meter high. There are stairs from all the four sides to reach on the stage.Inside the tomb,there are many rooms but some of them are locked for visitors.All the rooms have white marble tombs.The center room has a single tomb,which I assume Humayun’s tomb.
Unfortunately there are not much sign boards or displays to explain the history of the building.I strongly recommend reading about the history of the tomb and the mughal emperors of India before visiting.
There is a small entrance fee for the building and its open from sunrise to sunset.

Marble Tomb

On the stage,side view

Here is the location link and few photos on flickr.

the journey continues... » Mughal architecture

Fatehpur Sikri and places around

Humayun’s Tomb New Delhi