Ghost City

After breakfast, we drove to Fatehpur Sikr, a UNESCO site aka the Ghost City, built by Akbar the 3rd, in the 16th century. This beautiful, quiet, and ghostly site was established as the capital of the Mughal Empire and then abandoned after 8 years (by 1620), probably because of lack of water supply and/or lack of interest of the Mughal.

Almost perfectly preserved red stone buildings include the palace, a wives' domicile, kitchen, concubine harem complex, and buland darwaza (main entrance to the mosque). We also saw the Parchesi game court where instead of game pieces they used concubines.

We continued back to New Delhi by coach where we observed the Presidential Palace, embassies and bungalows whose residents are senior officials and sell for millions.Read more