Fatehpur Sikri was built by Emperor Akbar on the site where the holy man, who Akbar believed to have a power for giving an heir to him, had lived. The holy man’s home was in a very dry area where normal people will not expect to build a home, but not for this great emperor. Akbar built the whole city of Fatehpur Sikri with grand palace complex and enormous mosque in the center of semi-desert area. He moved his court to this place for just to face a water shortage problem. After Akbar passed away, this city was abandoned like a ghost town.

My friend and I visited Fatehpur Sikri in early morning to avoid the summer heat of India, we reached Fatehpur Sikri and found out that our hired guide was still in Agra and maybe late for one hour. Our driver decided to hire a new guide for us; after we got a new guide it was the time to discover Fatehpur Sikri. The red sandstone palace complex of Akbar is really beautiful with many buildings. The Hall of Private Audience has a unique interior symbolizing Akbar’s religion policy, the Faith of God or Din-i-Ilahi, which brought all religious doctrines in India and made it as a new belief. It was really nice to see many religion symbols in one place. The Treasury was designed for emperor to play hide and seek with his concubine! The harem section was really amazing with many halls for each queen and favorite concubines who came from different religions. Akbar must have a very big harem as he built five stories building for his women to see the view.

After the palace complex, we visited the grand mosque of this town. The gate is really big but inside is just a normal mosque. The center of this mosque is the Tomb of Akbar’s holy man which beautifully constructed in white marble. The tomb was full of worshippers mostly a woman maybe they also want a baby like Akbar. After we finished the tour and back to the entrance gate, we met our real guide who was late. Our guide offered us to tour Fatehpur Sikri again! You may think this is ridiculous, but we accepted his free offer as we love this place and seeing it again would be nice, so in that day we had seen Fatehpur Sikri twice!

Fatehpur Sikri is a very beautiful place and very near Agra where Taj Mahal located, so you can make this place as a one-day excursion like us. You will enjoy the wonder of Akbar’s architectural style which is better than the one in Agra Fort (the Akbar section not Shah Jahan one). But don’t go to any hidden corners as someone’s urine will ruin your feelings and most important, your nose.