Foremans' Travel: Day 12 Mar 4 Monday - Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Akbar's16th Century town

Day 12 March 4 - Monday. Today we see 3 UNESCO World Heritage sites in one day. Be ready for an AWE filled day. Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri. The Taj Mahal we heard about before but the Agra Fort and Fatehpur Skkri are new to us and definitely earned their World Heritage status. So we have one tomb, one fort with residence and one complete capital city used for about 14 years. We get up early to be at the Taj for the best early light.

Words fail. Sunrise on the Taj Mahal, clear sky, perfect temperature, friendly crowds. Takes our breath away. Yes, we took lots of photos but nothing we took or have ever seen in print can capture the magnificence of the Taj and it's surroundings. Everyone either takes off their shoes or wears footies, but we wonder how much longer the inside will be available to us throngs of tourists. The detail, jewels, symmetry, color, scale… all so much to take in.

From the Taj we visit the inlaid marble shop where they still use the Taj methods to make tables, vases and other pieces. We resist buying a $2700 vase to sit around, even when they offered it for $2000 … I took a photo of it instead and that won't require dusting.

Next we visited Agra Fort. The son of the Shah who built the Taj (to hold this boys mother) imprisoned his father in this fort. The still grieving widower/father could only see the Taj several miles away along the river, through the carved marble grills.

Our lunch menu today bordered on Japanese but the carrot halwa dessert seemed totally Indian. We've eaten this dessert three times and it's so good I might look it up when we get home to see if I can make it. (What am I saying!?)

What Akbar could see from prison his last 7 years

Our 3rd UNESCO site for the day, stands out as another one of those, "How-can-we-have-never-heard-of-this-before" sites. Fatehpur Sikri, (Capital City) was the capital for Akbar (1570-80 AD). It stands out as one of the best examples of medieval urban planning and religious tolerance. Akbar blends religious, secular and defense elements in magnificent fashion and we can count of seeing it again in his other sites. He moved the entire capital to Pakistan and then moved back to Agra, leaving this palace and surrounding city empty. Some Lord restored it during the British period… in about 1900.

The architecture reflects his interest in either combining or removing friction between the three religions in his kingdom at the time, Christianity, Hindu, and Muslim. He spent many years studying the three faiths. He married three woman, one from of each of the faiths, he read the sacred texts, held conferences and decided to form a fellowship of the faiths. It made some progress but was not carried on by his heir. (the ungrateful son afore mentioned.)

Akbar built each wife her own home/mini castle using architectural elements of her faith. Throughout the complex they creatively used perfumed water flowing into the thresholds to cool and refresh. Air conditioning! They carved a board game in the courtyard. The unusual throne or jewelry room is pictured below. The center column had four bridges to the corners and Akbar held audiences there, or looked at his jewels there, or consulted with advisors who came from four opinions. Who knows.