Fatehpur Sikri - Uttar Pradesh, India
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N 27° 05.862 E 077° 40.023
43R E 764439 N 3000061
Fatehpur Sikri is a city in the Agra District of Uttar Pradesh. The city was founded in 1569 by the Emperor, Akbar, and served as the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1571 to 1585. It had to be abandoned due to scarcity of water.
Waymark Code: WMQ6GQ
Location: India
Date Posted: 12/29/2015
Views: 2
The imperial Palace complex consists of a number of independent pavilions arranged in formal geometry on a piece of level ground, a pattern derived from Arab and central Asian tent encampments.
The complex of monuments and temples, all uniformly in Mughal architectural style, includes one of the largest mosques in India, the Jama Masjid, the Buland Darwaza, the Panch Mahal, and the Tomb of Salim Chishti. The English traveller Ralph Fitch considered the city in 1585 as 'considerably larger than London and more populous.' Its form and layout strongly influenced the evolution of Indian town planning, notably at Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi).
The Imperial complex was abandoned in 1585, shortly after its completion, due to the exhaustion of the small, spring-fed lake that supplied the city with water, and its proximity with the Rajputana areas in the North-West, which were increasingly in turmoil.
Because the palace area has been in nearly continuous use over the centuries, much of the imperial complex which spread over nearly two mile long and one mile wide area is largely intact. It is still surrounded by a five mile long wall built during its original construction on three sides. However apart from the imperial buildings complex and the magnificent mosque, which continues in use, little of the city survives. The former site of the city is mostly barren, except of ruins of the bazaars of the old city near the Naubat Khana, the 'drum-house' entrance at Agra Road.
Fatehpur Sikri was inscribed under the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986.
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