Our first stop in Agra was totally unexpected. We didn't know anything about Agra except for the Taj Mahal, our driver Akshay was basically in charge of our itinerary which was great because he knew where to take us. We didn't know until we were almost in Agra that the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays, but it wasn't a concern for Akshay since he had already decided on our itinerary for that day and that we'd be visiting the Taj on the next day early in the morning.
This is Sikandra. It's amazing, ornate and excessive (all monuments in Agra, including the Taj, are excessive).
These are verses from the Quran etched into the marble in Urdu.
This massive compound is walled-in and has an amazing amount of garden space which is well maintained.
Originally all of the ceilings in this monument contained ornate frescoes, but only a few have survived the years. The paint used here for the urdu verses is gold paint made from real gold.
Sikandra is a tomb for Akbar the Great. He started it's construction around 1600 died in 1605 and his son Jahangir had it completed in the 1605 to 1613 time frame. This is one of the graves, the person is buried 7 feet below this.
This lamp was added by the British, everything was originally designed to be illuminated by natural light (of course).
More tombs, I forget who they belonged to, but they were people in Akbar or Jahangir's family
The windows in the background are each a solid piece of marble carved out.
A close up of the intricate marble work on one of the tombs.
More verses carved into a solid sheet of marble.
People were taking naps here. I only costs Indians 5 Rupees to enter (100 Rupees for foreigners) which is just a little more than 10 cents. You'd think it is so cheap that it would be crawling with people, and you'd find more nappers, but luckily the craziness of outside is kept outside.
Can you imagine all of these with the original frescoes?
The channel you see in the middle of the walkway is for drainage from a fountain. There was a walkway leading out of the tomb in each direction and a structure at the end of each walkway. The first structure in this series of pictures is where you enter. They're all incredible and each one had a fountain in front (they're dry now)
I was worried I'd forget the name of this place so I took a picture of the entrance ticket. You used to be able to pay on $2 to get in, now they only accept rupees and it's 100 rupees which is like $2.06
This can help you gain a perspective for how big each of the structures are.
Solid pieces of sandstone were carved without error to create this window.
This fountain had water in it, but not on purpose. I think it was non-drained rain water.
Some restoration work is currently going on.
This is one of the gates to the tomb which has been completely dilapidated but they are restoring it. We got pretty close to it before one of the workers drove us away.
The gardens contained gazelles and peacocks.
The grounds were lower than the monuments and walkways and steps lead to the grounds, originally water flowed in the middle of the steps.
A gazelle and other antelope.
A fountain or pool near the tomb.
The fountains probably served as pools, since they all had steps leading into them. You can see the steps pictured here.
Some of the original fresco in tact.
Look at me in comparison to the size of these gate structures, they're big.
This windows are carved out from single pieces of sandstone.
This is Sikandra. It's amazing, ornate and excessive (all monuments in Agra, including the Taj, are excessive).
These are verses from the Quran etched into the marble in Urdu.
This massive compound is walled-in and has an amazing amount of garden space which is well maintained.
Originally all of the ceilings in this monument contained ornate frescoes, but only a few have survived the years. The paint used here for the urdu verses is gold paint made from real gold.
Sikandra is a tomb for Akbar the Great. He started it's construction around 1600 died in 1605 and his son Jahangir had it completed in the 1605 to 1613 time frame. This is one of the graves, the person is buried 7 feet below this.
This lamp was added by the British, everything was originally designed to be illuminated by natural light (of course).
More tombs, I forget who they belonged to, but they were people in Akbar or Jahangir's family
The windows in the background are each a solid piece of marble carved out.
A close up of the intricate marble work on one of the tombs.
More verses carved into a solid sheet of marble.
People were taking naps here. I only costs Indians 5 Rupees to enter (100 Rupees for foreigners) which is just a little more than 10 cents. You'd think it is so cheap that it would be crawling with people, and you'd find more nappers, but luckily the craziness of outside is kept outside.
Can you imagine all of these with the original frescoes?
The channel you see in the middle of the walkway is for drainage from a fountain. There was a walkway leading out of the tomb in each direction and a structure at the end of each walkway. The first structure in this series of pictures is where you enter. They're all incredible and each one had a fountain in front (they're dry now)
I was worried I'd forget the name of this place so I took a picture of the entrance ticket. You used to be able to pay on $2 to get in, now they only accept rupees and it's 100 rupees which is like $2.06
This can help you gain a perspective for how big each of the structures are.
Solid pieces of sandstone were carved without error to create this window.
This fountain had water in it, but not on purpose. I think it was non-drained rain water.
Some restoration work is currently going on.
This is one of the gates to the tomb which has been completely dilapidated but they are restoring it. We got pretty close to it before one of the workers drove us away.
The gardens contained gazelles and peacocks.
The grounds were lower than the monuments and walkways and steps lead to the grounds, originally water flowed in the middle of the steps.
A gazelle and other antelope.
A fountain or pool near the tomb.
The fountains probably served as pools, since they all had steps leading into them. You can see the steps pictured here.
Some of the original fresco in tact.
Look at me in comparison to the size of these gate structures, they're big.
This windows are carved out from single pieces of sandstone.
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