Tour - Day 3

Monday, October 8, 2007, 3:07 A.M. WAKE-UP CALL!

The bus left at 4:20 A.M. from the hotel in Jaipur. Our first stop was FATEHPUR SIKRI, a fortified ghost city about 40 km west of Agra. It was built as the capital of the Mughal empire from 1571 to 1585 by the Emperor Akbar. Akbar had a great idea but unfortunately chose an area with no water supply.

In the fort is the Panch Mahal a 5 storey pavilion used by court ladies. The lower floor has 84 pillars - all different. The front set of pillars on each level are double.


The Diwan-i-Khan (Private Audience) has a magnificently carved stone column in its centre.

The Pachisi Courtyard was used by Akbar to play Parcheesi using slave girls as pieces.

Then on to AGRA FORT. This red sandstone fort was built on the bank of the Yamuna River. It was started by emperor Akbar in 1565. It consists of several buildings.


There is a huge slab of black stone which was used by Jehangir when he was prince Salim.

The Musamman Bury and Khas Mahal are built of white marble when Shah Jahan was imprisoned for 8 years. He could look out at the Taj Mahal tomb of his wife.

After lunch it was on to the Taj Mahal.

On to the Taj Mahal. With the trees that have grown you really do not see too much of the Taj before arriving at the main gate.

The price of admission was steep for "foreigners" at 750 Rs a head. The "ladies" had one line and the "gents" had a double line. Due to the fact that I was a foreigner I was able to jump the queue and took about 15 minutes to clear security with the metal detector and frisking. Once inside the west gate it was on to the main gate which is a 30 m. high red sandstone structure. Through the gateway one has a glimpse of only part of the Taj Mahal.

Once through the gateway, the view is stunning. The Taj Mahal is simply "beautiful" to look at. Its symmetry is perfect. A walk alongside the reflecting pool lead to the official stairway to the raised platform. It was here we had to take off our shoes before ascending the stairs. The sandstone and white marble were hot to the bare feet.

The door to the tomb is impressive. The light filters into the tomb through finely cut marble screens in the archways. At first it was very dark and almost impossible to see the 2 tombs behind the inner marble screen which surrounds the false tombs.

This second screen has 43 different types of semi-precious stones decorating it.

After the Taj it was back to the hotel in Delhi at 11:15 P.M. One long day!

(Stef will add the pictures on Monday. Sorry to make you wait, folks!)

Update: Stef is having some difficulty uploading this morning. I'll try again at lunch.

2nd update: the pictures are all up now!