Ghost City of Fatehpur

After leaving the Taj Mahal (Saturday January 18th), we checked out of our hotel and headed toward the city of Jaipur.  On the way to Jaipur, we stopped in the city of Fatehpur Sikiri which is home to a "walled ghost city" built by "Akbar The Great".   The city was founded in 1569 and served as the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1571 to 1585.  The construction of the walled city took fifteen years to complete.  As red sandstone was plentiful throughout the area, the entire complex was constructed using the dark stone.  The enclosed city included a palace, several large living quarters with separate areas for Akbar's many wives and a huge mosque.  The name of the city comes from the Arabic word Fateh which means victorious.  

Amazingly, the complex was abandoned shortly after its completion due to the lack of water in the area and the fact that the region became home to many rival factions. Because the walled city still stands uninhabited today, it has become known as the Ghost City of Fatehpur.  

The street hawkers were fairly aggressive at this stop.  

Roman and Mabret were convinced to buy a homemade wire puzzle game.  

Since they looked quite flimsy, the young adventurers negotiated a price of 4 toys for 100 Rupees or approximately $1.40USD.  The exchange rate is approximately 60 Rupees to one dollar.  After the first toy broke, Roman set out to resell the item.  He successfully found a buyer who paid 5 Rupees for the broken toy.  There is one born every minute.  A salesman was also born. It was hilarious and rewarding to watch Roman jump in and hawk among the local kids.  We were so enthralled watching him that we both forgot to take a photo.

The Taj Mahal

On Saturday January 18th, we departed our hotel at 7:30am to beat the huge crowds which always swarm the Taj Majal on a Saturday.  Approximately 20,000 people will visit the site on the same day as us.  After getting within a mile of the entrance, we boarded a tram for the final approach.

As boys will be boys, facing backwards in the rear of the tram was a unanimous choice of Dad, Mabret and Roman. 

The Taj Mahal is widely regarded as the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Islamic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Indian architectural styles.

In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The construction of the Taj Mahal began around 1632 and was completed around 1653.  In 1631, Shah Jahan, emperor during the Mughal Empire's period of greatest prosperity, was grief-stricken when his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, a Persian princess died during the birth of their 14th child.  Shah Jahan set out to build a mausoleum and surrounding structures to honor her memory.  While there are many stories about the Taj Mahal, some mostly true and other perhaps spun from centuries of locals giving tours and never dispensing the information about the Taj Mahal the same way twice, the question that remained for me throughout our visit was, how did they build this thing 400 years ago.  

The Taj Mahal was built on land to the south of the walled city of Agra.  An area of roughly three acres was excavated, filled with dirt and leveled at 160 feet above the riverbank.  In the tomb area, wells were dug and filled with stone and rubble to form the footings of the tomb.  A nine mile ramp was built to transport marble and materials to the construction site and teams of twenty oxen pulled the blocks on specially constructed wagons.  An elaborate post-and-beam pulley system was used to raise the blocks into their desired position.  Water was drawn from the river by an animal-powered rope and bucket system into a large storage tank for distribution to the construction site. 

The tomb took roughly 12 years to complete.  The remaining parts of the complex took an additional 10 years to finish.  The total cost has been estimated at 40 million dollars. 

The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia and over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials. The white marble was brought from Rajasthan, India, the jasper from Punjab, India with jade and crystal coming from China. The turquoise was from Tibet while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka.  Twenty-eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.

The end result is a series of structures that defy imagination even when you are blessed to be staring at them. 

Outside the main gate of the Taj Mahal. The gate itself is remarkable. 

The payoff.  (Warning - it was a foggy morning.  Sorry.) 

The marble carving caught Roman's eye.

A view of the gardens looking out from the Taj Mahal.

The RTW Adventure Family feeling blessed as they depart the Taj Mahal.