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Travelling to Agra/Trip to Agra

City : AGRA                       

 State : Uttar Pradesh

Major Tourist Attractions :
Sikandra, Agra Fort, Taj Mahal, Itimad-ud-Daulah, Fatehpur Sikri 

Location : 204 km southeast of Delhi

How to reach :
By Road :
Well connected with Delhi-Jaipur-Gwalior on national highways

Delhi-Agra, 204 km/4 hours
Places to see enroute : Mathura, Brindaban and Sikandra

Jaipur-Agra, 235 km/5 hours drive
Places to see enroute : Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and Fatehpuri Sikri

Gwalior-Agra : 120 km
Orcha-Agra : 225 km
Khajuraho-Agra : 400 km

Trains :
Well connected with fast and tourist trains with Delhi, Jaipur, Gwalior, Lucknow,
Jodhpur, Varanasi. Jhansi and Bhopal.

Flights :
At present no flight is in operation to or from Agra.

Hotels :
Luxury, 5 star deluxe to budget hotels are available in Agra.

AGRA :
Agra has seen several battles between Mughals,  Lodhis, Jats and other rulers.  Agra was one of the most important cities during Mughal era and was also capital of India at one time. It was under the rule of Great King Akbar that Agra first aspired to its heights of magnificence. From 1570 to 1585 he ruled from nearby Fatehpur Sikri.  He was forced to abandon the city  due to shortage of water, but returned to Agra un 1599 and remained there until his death in 1605. Shah Jahan is the name inevitably connected with Agra. He built Jama Masjid, most of the palace buildings inside the Agra Fort and, of course, the Taj Mahal.

AGRA FORT:
Construction of the massive Agra Fort was begun by Emperor Akbar in 1565, and additions were made up until the time of his grandson, Shah Jahan.  There are many fascinating buildings within the massive walls which stretch for 2.5km, surrounded by a moat over 10 metres wide. Inside, the fort is really a city within a city. Not all of the buildings are open to visitors, and Shah Jahan's beautiful marble Moti Masjid (known as the Pearl Mosque for its perfect proportions) is, unfortunately, closed.

ITIMAD-UD-DAULAH :
The tomb of Mirza Ghiyas Beg, Persian, was  King Jahangir's  Chief Minister, and his beautiful daughter later married the emperor. Known as  Nur Jahan, the Light of the World, and her niece was Mumtaz Mahal, Chosen of the Palace. The tomb was constructed by Nur Jahan between 1622 and 1628. The tomb’s design elements foreshadow the Taj, construction of which started only a few years later. The Itimad-ud-Daulah was the first Mughal structure totally built from marble and the first to make extensive use of pietra dura, the inlay work of marble. The mausoleum is small and squat compared to the soaring Taj, but its beautifully patterned surface is superb. Extremely fine marble latticework passages admit light to the interior.

SIKANDRA :
10 km north-west of Agra, the tomb of Akbar lies in the centre of a large peaceful garden. Akbar started its construction himself but it was completed by his son, Jahangir. The building has three-storey minarets at each corner and is built of red sandstone. Four red sandstone gates lead to the tomb complex; one is Muslim, one Hindu, one Christian, and one is Akbar's patent mixture. Like Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, it is an interesting place to study the gradual evolution in design that culminated in the Taj Mahal.

TAJ MAHAL :
This most famous Mughal monument was constructed by Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal,  It has been described as the most extravagant monument ever built for love, for the emperor was heartbroken when Mumtaz, to whom he had been married for 17 years, died in 1631.
Construction of the Taj began in 1631 itself and was not completed until in 1653. Workers were recruited not only from all over India but also from central Asia, and in total 20000 people worked on the building. Experts were even brought from as far away as Europe-the Frenchman Austin of Bordeaux and the Italian Veroneo of  Venice had a hand in its decoration. The main architect was Isa Khan, who came from Shiraz in Iran.


FATEHPUR SIKRI
Situated 40 km west of Agra on Agra-Jaipur route, it was built at the orders of the Mughal Emperor Akbar.  Legend has it that since Akbar was without an heir for a long time, he made a pilgrimage to the renowned Sufi saint, Sheik Salim Chisti, to seek his blessings. When a son -- later to be known as Jahangir -- was born to him, Akbar named him after the saint as a mark of his gratitude and built the new capital to mark his birth. Construction of the new ceremonial capital, with its elaborate palaces, formal courtyards, reflecting pools, harems, tombs and a great mosque, commenced in 1571. The city had to be abandoned shortly after its completion due to shortage of water.
Fatehpur Sikri is now a World Heritage site. The Panch Mahal , or Palace of Five Storeys, and the Buland Darwaza, a massive gate which provides entrance to the complex, number among the finest specimens of Mughal architecture.