Fatehpur Sikri, India

The "City of Victory" Fatehpur Sikri,, which is at 35 kilometers from Agra on a low hill of the Vindhya mountain range. Before the reign of Akbar (1556-1605), the Mughal King who built Fatehpur Sikri, the site of the future city had already earned an auspicious reputation. Babar, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty and Akbar's grandfather, had won a battle here over Rana Sanga of Mewar.

In gratitude he named the area Shukri, which means "thanks". In Akbar's time the site was occupied by a small village of stonecutters and was the home of Shaikh Salim Chishti, a Muslim astrologer and Sufi Saint. In 1568 Akbar visited the Shaikh to ask for the birth of an heir. The Shaikh replied that an heir would be born soon. Sure enough, Akbar's wife gave birth to a boy on August 30, 1569. In gratitude, Akbar named the boy Salim after the astrologer, and, two years later decided to move the capital to Sikri.

The decision to build a new capital at Sikri was dogged by more than sentiment. It was a strategic location in Rajasthan that put Akbar and his armies closer to the Gujarat region--the next object of Akbar's expansionist dreams. Gujarat was desirable because its coastal cities were ideally suited to take advantage of the lucrative trade to Arab lands.

The Construction of the new capital began in earnest in 1571 and continued for about fifteen years. During much of this time Akbar made the area his home, but strangely, in 1586, Akbar abandoned his new capital forever. The reasons are not entirely clear, but the most plausible explanation is that Akbar needed to move his base of operations to wage the war against Kabul, which he occupied in 1585, and Kandahar, which fell in 1595.

The city was used only sparingly in the coming centuries after Akbar's departure. In the early 17th century it became the home of several queen mothers. In 1619 Emperor Jahangir camped here for three months while a plague raged in nearby Agra. Ninety years later, the city was refurbished to host the coronation of Muhammad Shah (1709-48). After that, the city was largely abandoned until Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India for the British from 1898 to 1905, sponsored an archaeological survey and restoration efforts.

At present the city has become one of the chief tourist attractions of India. However, it is impossible to capture in pictures a single iconic image of the city, in the way that the Taj Mahal can be framed in its totality in the viewfinder of any camera. Fatehpur Sikri is so large and decentralized that the city can only be experienced as a series of changing surroundings as one travels from courtyard to courtyard. There are no broad boulevards or landmark buildings that can be constantly kept in view when experiencing the city. At Fatehpur Sikri, there are very few buildings that can be seen from all four sides in isolation--among them the Diwan-i-Khas and the Sonakra Makan. Most buildings are fused together in such a way that there are a multitude of routes to reach any point. It is almost if the figure-ground of a modern city is reversed: open spaces are non-continuous islands in a network of buildings that flow together like streets.