Fatehpur Sikri

The royal city at Fatehpur Sikri, situated 30 miles west of Agra, was built at the orders of the Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1571. He had planned this as his capital, but a shortage of water compelled him to abandon it completely. 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. The cultural politics of the site remains to be written: perhaps the mammoth chess board where human figures were used as chess pieces and moved at the emperor’s will, provides a clue.