What an exciting easter eve we had.....
since Mr M had the day off we decided to go to the ancient capital of Fatephur Sikri....a couple of hours drive ......not far away from Agra and Taj Mahal....so we packed our picknick bag and headed south....on the way it rained and rained all through the three different states, Haryana,Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and then back into UP.....perfect when sitting in a car though....
Fatephur Sikri sits on rocky ridge, 3 km in length and 1 km wide... palace city is surrounded by
a 6 km wall on three sides with the fourth being a lake at that time.
it's an impressive view from the road a couple of kilometers away...
the city was founded by Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1569...it served as the capital in the Mughal Empire between 1571 and 1585.....then they ran ut of water !! so Agra became the capital....
entrance to the harem...
the harem courtyard....here Akbar kept his wifes..a hindu wife, a muslim wife and a christian wife...
he married princesses from different religions because of political reasons....making alliances with people from different religions....thought he would get a stronger empire this way...
living quarters for the harem servants...only female servants....in the back the mosque...
looking down...outside of the castle...where all the people serving the castle lived..
the view was magnificent....
at first I didn't know what animal it was...you know from far away it could have been a leopard ?
while standing in one of the courtyards I saw something big flying in and all of a sudden all the birds started to warn each other.....it was an egyptian vulture ! apparently very common here in India..
this was a first for us though....
just look at that head....quite the odd fellow, ha ? didn't get a chance to see his claws....I imagine they are big and scary....
beautiful park areas...
the architecture is astonishing...I mean it's a couple of years since they built it....
Akbars reception hall...he had a pedestal he sat on so that he was always higher up than everybody else....
the pool guy...yes, he had a pool, still there, with very green water though....in the middle Akbar had an orchestra playing...
Pansh Mahal....looked like a house of cards....and next to it was the school.....
just had to get a picture in on of the many parrots we saw...
the wall and the Jama Mashid , the mosque...
dinner table for all...first time I have seen doves, parrots and squirrel eating together...
love the architecture...
it was really worth a visit....if visiting Taj Mahal try to squeeze in the castle also...it's only 45 kilometers (indian meaning you never know if it's 45 or 50 or ?) from the Taj....
while driving home we saw this big gathering along the road in one of the villages-cities, Mathura...
and while I was telling the others in the car that I see a big cat....it jumped and ran....and both me and Mr M said "it's a leopard"...the villagers where all standing there with sticks, the most common weapon in India ! wow....it was close....exciting...then our driver stopped and I guess thought that I was going to get out and get pictures....don't think so ! the leopard was long gone by then ?? chased away by the people...
after that encounter we started rabbling animals we had seen during the day....pigs,cows,horses,donkeys,buffaloes,mongooses,dogs,camels,elephant, parrots,vulture,butterflies,monkeys and snakes....
not bad ha ?
the latter I'll show you in another post....
too bad I didn't get a picture of the leopard in Mathura though !
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