India Guide
Uttar Pradesh
Agra Fort
Address: 2km northwest of the Taj Mahal
Price: Rs300, video Rs25
Opening time: Daily sunrise to sunset
The high red-sandstone ramparts of Agra Fort dominate a bend in the Yamuna River. Akbar laid the foundations of this majestic citadel on earlier Rajput fortifications, Built between 1565 and 1573 in the form of a half moon, the structure developed as the seat of the Mughal Empire for successive generation. Its curved sandstone bastions soar over twenty metres and stretch for two and a half kilometres, punctuated by massive gates. Although the original entrance was through the western side, via the Delhi Gate and Hathi Pol or "Elephant Gate", but visitors can now only enter via the Amar Singh Pol. From here a ramp climbs gently uphill flanked by high walls (another defensive measure), through a second gate to the spacious courtyard, with tree-studded lawns, which surrounds the graceful Diwan-i-Am ("Hall of Public Audience").
Climbing the stairs beyond the small door left of the throne alcove here brings you to the upper level of the large Macchi Bhavan (Fish Palace), overlooking a spacious, grassy courtyard.
To your right (as you face the river), a high terrace overlooking the Yamuna is topped with a sequence of lavish royal apartments designed to catch the cool breezes blowing across the waters below. The first is the delicate, finely decorated Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience), where the emperor would have received kings, dignitaries and ambassadors. A passageway behind leads to the tiny Mina Masjid, a plain white marble mosque built for Shah Jahan and said to have been used by him during his imprisonment here. Beyond, the passageway leads to a two-storeyed pavilion known as the Musamman Burj, famous as the spot where he is said to have caught his last glimpse of the Taj Mahal before he died, and the most elaborately decorated structure in the fort.