Our trip to India
Fall 2005

[Start] [Delhi] [Agra] [Taj Mahal] [Fatehpur Sikri] [Jaipur] [Wrap Up]

Agra

It takes about 5 hours to drive the 200km from Delhi to Agra. The first hour is going the first 20km to get out of Delhi. Our visit was quite rushed, as we only had the afternoon to visit the Red Fort & the Taj. We stayed at the Jaypee Palace. It was really a nice 5 star hotel, but the room we had smelled quite a bit of smoke. I would recommend the Oberoi group's hotel in Agra. I understand every room has a view of the Taj and a swimming pool completely encompasses it.

First up was the Red Fort. This is a huge fort, covering a tremendous area. Even though we spent over two hours inside of it, we saw less than 25% of it (the areas marked "area under Military Occupation" are off limits). There is tremendous history behind the fort, with so many stories, that I thought the sign out front would be a good place to start.

It is quite an imposing site, with literally hundreds of buildings. You approach through a huge gate than has a ramp about a hundred meters long that is paved with bricks and allowed the elephants to go up & down easily. Even though this was huge with all these defensive positions, it seems it was overthrown several times throughout history. As Yoda would say "size matters not". One of the rulers to call this home for quite some time - even when he got overthrown by his own son, he was still imprisoned here. That was Shah Jahan, the person responsible for building the Taj.

Looking over a shoulder, shows the extensive wall & moat surrounding the entire fort. This is looking along the wall. If you look at the map, this is looking SW from the Amar Singh Gate.

Inside the fort, it is simply breathtaking at the detail in all of the buildings. Many of the buildings were built by Akbar, who apparently started his own religion that was a blend of Budhism, Islam and Hindu. I forget what it was called, but this blending was evident in the architecture and carvings as you can influences of each in the detail carvings. Imagine almost every building having this kind of detail and you can see why we spent so much time inside. He also did Fatehpur Sikri which I show later in the slide show. Get some popcorn.

One of the more interesting areas inside the Red Fort was the common area where the current ruler would proclaim to the masses. This imposing structure was unique in that while the posts may look lined up, in actuality, they are arranged so no matter what your position outside, the ruler could see everyone from the dais centered along the back wall.

Of course, probably the most famous room in all of the Red Fort is the room where Shah Jahan was imprisoned after he built the Taj. The extensive use of inlayed tile with precious stones, including rubies, diamonds and emeralds shows that it wasn't as much of a prison as some might believe.

He didn't have too shabby of a view either as evident by the maiden's court right next to it (which wasn't fenced in). Yes, that is the Taj over our shoulders in the distance.

His garden area outside of his room wasn't too bad either. Real nice. Back in the corner is a room covered in mirrors that can only be entered if you are a visiting ambassador or famous person. You can become an ambassador by tipping the guards 500 rupees. Unfortunately too many others were around so they wouldn't accept our tip. We did gaze through the front window. I bet it would be real trippy with a candle. Damn those legs are white. 

The Taj is next and deserves it own page, even though it is in Agra

[Start] [Delhi] [Agra] [Taj Mahal] [Fatehpur Sikri] [Jaipur] [Wrap Up]