Day 7 - Agra : Fatehpur Sikri & Red Fort

The overnight trip was good . 12 stops but slept on the raised benches and our fellow passengers were quiet ! I managed about an hour and a half deep sleep in about 5 patches so I did get some sleep . Up at 9 and it seems we are approx four hours late as the train has been stopping and starting all night ! Ho hum! Sit it out and watch the green fields and half finished houses and try the chai ! We arrived five hours late - reason unknown ! Agra is sunny !

Fatehpur Sikri is an imperial fortress city of the Mughal empire.  Not long after the fortress was completed, the lake that provided water to the complex dried up, and life at Fatehpur Sikri was unsustainable.
This abandoned fortified city was built for the Mughal Emperor Akbar. It was the capital of the Mughal empire from 1571 to 1585, and considered the best example of Mughal architecture in existence. It is huge and you could take a day here - because of the train we don’t have that long !

The Agra or Red Fort was also built by the Mughals. Agra Fort is really an entire red walled city with different buildings and lookouts in the fortress with fine details within the fort, carved into marble and stone. It’s huge and even larger when you consider the outer walls in the distance . It’s very colourful of but has more decorations - the white marble palace and a number of ornate arches very reminiscent of the Silk Road Islamic architecture ! We get out first view of the gleaming white Taj Mahal in the distance . The light is great in the sunshine but it’s fading fast and so are we after the train! The monkeys escort us out and we head home as it’s an early start tomorrow for Taj Mahal proper ! Czytaj więcej