Agra Fort
The Agra Fort was begun by Emperor Akbar in 1565 and grew with each successive leader. Shah Jahan (of Taj Mahal) fame included a large amount of construction in marble.
Used originally as a military building, the fort has seen a transformation into a palace and then a prison. Aurangzeb (Shah Jahan’s son) seized power from his father in 1658, killing his two brothers, and imprisoned him there for the last eight years of his life, only able to see his precious Taj Mahal from across the river.
The fort used to include Ghats along the Yamuna River where the emperors could bathe, but these are no longer there. It also used to contain a vast underground network of tunnels and rooms, though most of it has been destroyed over the years. What’s left starts with The Amar Singh Gate, where attackers would first need to battle with crocodile infested waters before getting through the guarded gates!
The path then leads up to the palaces and halls where you can get excellent views of the Taj Mahal from across the river.
I really enjoyed walking around the fort but I did think it sad that a large majority of the visitors here come purely for the view of the Taj Mahal.
Itimad-ud-Daulah (Baby Taj)
This is the tomb of Mizra Ghiyas Beg, a Persian nobleman and Mumtaz Mahal’s grandfather. He was Emperor Jehangir’s chief minister and when he died his daughter built the tomb. This was the first Mughal structure to be built completely of marble. It was nowhere near as impressive as the real Taj on a size scale, but the inlay on it is very intricate and it baffles me how they did this by hand!
Chini-ka-Rauza
This is a Persian style tomb that was built for Afzal Khan, a poet who served as Shah Jahan’s chief minister.
I didn’t say long as I was getting hounded by small children 😦
Mehtab Bagh
This park was built by Emperor Babur as the last in a series of 11 parks on the East bank of the river. It was left to the elements and nature until it wasn’t much more than a pile of dirt and sand, but in recent years has been reconstructed to its former beauty. This has been mainly to prevent the sand from blowing across the river over to the Taj!
The park is one of the best places in the whole of Agra to get a good view of the Taj Mahal from afar. I was definetly ‘Taj’d out’ by the end of the day!
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