The Moghul city of Fatehpur Sikri

After our early-moning visit to the Taj we set off to visit the deserted Moghul kingdom of Fatehpur Sikri. An interesting story stands behind the 'ghost' city: Fatehpur Sikri was the capital of Akbar, the third and greatest of the Moghul emperors in the 16th century. He was unhappy because he did not have an heir and visited many holy men to pray for a son. In the village of Sikri he was told by a sheikh that he would have three sons and when the prophecy was fulfilled, Akbar was so impressed that he raised an entire new capital on the hill where the sheikh lived. However, the palace complex was deserted after a short period of 10-12 years, probably due to the failure of water supply.
We approached Fatehpur Sikri from the Royal Palace complex...

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Inside the Palace complex, well preserved red sandstone buildings with fine decoration: Halls of Public and Private Audiance, Akbar's private chambers and of course houses of his several wives... one can tell from size of the palaces, which belonged to his 'favorite' wife. Akbar, though being Muslim, was open to Buddhism, Christianity and the Hindu faith and in Fatehpur Sikri it's visible the integration of different decorative elements from all religions.

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But not only favorite wives deserved to be rewarded with grandious structures.... Akbar has also built an unusual stone tower to commemorate his favorite elephant:

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Outside the Royal Palace complex, we visited the Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India. Already the gates and archways are impressive with their rich decoration in Persian and Hindu design:

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The interior of the Jama Masjid is home of the tomb of the sheikh, a masterpiece in brilliant white marble, looking unique in an otherwise completely red sandstone complex. The tomb is mainly visited by childless women who tie a red ribbon and pray at the saint's shrine hoping for the parenthood Akbar was blessed with.

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The Jama Masjid is also home of numerous local kids, begging for money, which is one of the saddest experiences in India... Since we knew that probably begging was carried out in 'organized' manner and most of the money would be taken from the kids anyway, we decided to encourage one of the small, 4-5-year-old boy to offer a 'service' in return to the money. We faced him with a challenge, promising to give him a few rupees if he would guess which country we were coming from... well, we were amazed to hear how many countries this small kid was able to list in just seconds!

--- Some Americans could definitely learn from these street kids in India... when making statements like "India is just like Egypt" (but that's another story) ---

Despite the numerous countries he knew, Hungary seemed to be a little too tough for the small boy. However, as we mentioned the name of the country, he was almost instantly shouting "BUDAPEST!" ... And we felt this was worth to be rewarded!

The sun started to be brutal at this time of the day and we went back to our car to continue our trip towards Rajasthan where our story continues...

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Uttar Pradesh - Agra

The Taj Mahal

"Not architecture! As all others are

But the proud passion of an emperor's love

Wrought into living stone, which gleams and soars

With body of beauty, shining soul and thought as when some face

Divinely fair unveils before your eyes

Some women beautiful unspeakably

And the blood quickens and the spirit leaps

And the will to worship bends the half yielded knees

While breath forgets to breathe

So is the Taj"

                                Sir Edwin Arnold

There are few (if any) as magic and beautiful places on earth as the Taj Mahal. It is a place that no picture does just, its magnificence can not be captured by any video footage. It is not one of those places that you say "yeah it is just like on the pictures", being there is so much different that I can not emphasize enough.

The "entrance" itself might qualify alone as one of the most beautiful buildings we've seen

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but it is the moment of the Taj appearing as you cross the arch of its gate is that can not be described with words (clik here for a video of a humble attempt to capture this moment at sunrise).

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Still we will attempt to give back a little of the experience through our words and photos...

We visited the Taj for the first time in full daylight at about noon, when the sun came almost from above, the Taj appearing white at this time of the day:

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The elegance of the setting with the pool which reflects the Taj is just as staggering

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as the attention to detail. For example the 4 minarets tilt outwards (calculated and on purpose unlike some famous leaning...) so that in case of an earthquake they don't fall on the Taj or that size of the letters increases towards the top, so that they appear to be the same size for the reader below and lets not forget that all the inlays are precious stones (like onix for black and sapphire for red and green, etc) which sparkle in the sunlight:

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The atmosphere was something completely magical, no sign of loud crowds, just everybody admiring the unique beauty:

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or trying to pick up the Taj and taking it home...

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We loved the Taj so much that we decided to wake up very early the next morning and see it again during sunrise.

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What is probably the most fascinating about the Taj is that it is never the same, it changes its color with the sun. That is why sunrise was a particularly special moment:

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It feels like the Taj is alive:
- it sleeps at night to be awaken by the first ray of sunshine:

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- and quickly awake without any sign of being tired

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- so as to shine with its glory for just another day

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As difficult it was, at some point we had to say goodbye to the Taj with an attempt to take a piece of its magic with us in our heart...

Here is the quick history lesson for those interested in the story of the Taj:

Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor was in love with Mumtaz Mahal however his father did not approve the relationship as she was not of royal blood. Shah Jahan being a smart guy, married the woman his father chose, whereupon he soon took over as emperor. His wife died several years later (not clear on how but guides obviously say it was of natural circumstances) and he promptly married Mumtaz.

Fast forward a bit ... in child-birth for the fourteenth time Mumtaz dies and Shah Jahan, ignoring his political duties, decides to build the Taj Mahal as a memorial to his wife. It takes 20,000 Persian workman 22 years to complete the amazing building and rumors say, upon completion, he had the right hand of the master mason cut off so it could never be replicated.

Fast forward again ... Aurangzeb, third son of Shah Jahan, kills his brothers so that he can take the thrown. Meanwhile, having completed the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan plans to build himself his own Black Taj Mahal mausoleum across the river, which however was never completed since his own son imprisoned him at the Agra Red Fort. Nice kid!
Eventually, when Shah Jahan died, he was entombed at the Taj.

Speaking of Agra Fort, it's definitely also worth a visit...

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The "Red Fort" is actually a fortified castle, which was built by Akbar (Shah Jahan’s Grandfather) and then added to by both Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, his son. Akbar’s constructions were ususally made in red sandstone (see also our next blog entry on Fatehpur Sikri), while Shah Jahan was the first to bring in white marble in the Indian construction. The Agra Fort complex is a marvellous combination of both, with obvious attention to details.

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Supposedly, Akbar had three wives housed here, one Hindu, one Muslim and one Christian, as well as several hundered of concubines, all housed in the buildings here.

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Maharaja Shah Jahan was ultimately placed under house arrest in the fort by his son, Aurangzeb after he seized power and decided that all the spending on dad’s obsession with the Black Taj was enough. Shah Jahan spent the rest of his life in a white marble pavillion

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with a view of the Taj Mahal across the plains. Finally from here Gulliver could also get a picture with the Taj Mahal (as he was not allowed the Taj complex... after all, he does look like a terrorist with a bomb hidden in his belly, doesn't he?)

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Uttar Pradesh - Varanasi, the holy river town

Our journey in India started in Varanasi, the holiest city in Hindu religion and certainly one of the most intense, atmospheric places we have been to. After Nepal, we thought we were prepared for what was waiting for us... but we realized very soon, that it was impossible to stay unaffected by the extreme sights, smells and religious flavor of this place!

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What makes Varanasi so special? 
First of all, it is the oldest continuously occupied city on Earth, and it shows... the streets conditions here are just as “3rd world” and chaotic as in Kathmandu... 

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Then, being the most important holy city in the Hindu religion as well as the birthplace of Buddhism, Varanasi is full of spirituality and ritual. On our first evening, we watched the evening riverside Aarti ceremony at the ghats, a ritual on the bank of the Ganges, which is hard to imagine!

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An amazing combination of light and sound, while thousands of locals and pilgrims make their offerings to the river goddess Lady Ganga.

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It is said that the Ganges must be seen at two different times of the day. In the early morning fog, the Ganges appeared more spiritual and intimate. We watched the life along the ghats (large stone stairs leading into the water) from a boat the next morning ...

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The whole spectrum of Life (and Death) was played out before us: faithful Hindus bathing in the holy water of the Ganges (most Hindus come to dip in the Ganga at least once in their lives), 

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... people swimming or doing their laundry in the river, people being cremented, or ... have their ashes brought here and immersed into the Ganga. All of this along the same river!  

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After the boat ride, we walked through the impossibly narrow passageways of the the old city which were too narrow even for rickshaws to enter, only cows and dogs wandered around freely and dead bodies were carried down to the river. It was the time when we started to feel that we needed to get out of this place... thus we appraised our guide's idea to visit Sarnath, which is located about 13 kms of Varanasi ... an important place in Buddhism as it is the place where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon after he got enlighten. A huge Stupa marks the actual spot where the sermon was delivered:

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After a refreshing shower and some rest in the afternoon, we were ready for our first overnight train ride on Indian railways from Varanasi to Agra... our first impressions: an organized chaos! There were people everywhere in the train station and sleeping on the floor, but the train was already in the station 30 before departure time and we could even find our names listed on the carriage!

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We had tickets for a 2AC sleeper carriage, which is second of eight classes in India and pretty ok if you are tired enough to be able to ignore the train vendors passing by every 5 minutes trying to sell some tea, fruits, dinner and whoknowswhat ... but after all, we were travelling to India to experience India... and more importantly, we were on the way to Agra and could hardly wait to see the Taj Mahal!

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