Sex Flies and Videotape: India: Prince of Persia (Fatehpur Sikri)

Early in the morning we head out of Agra, and visit a place called Fatehpur Sikri.

Fatehpur Sikri was built by Emperor Akbar in the 1500s (well he told people to make it - I don't think he built the whole thing himself...) over a span of 15 years to be the new capital of the Mughal Empire.

Trivia: Akbar upgraded his title from Admiral after he lead the coup against the Rebel Alliance

It was designed in fantastic Persian architectural style and all of the palace buildings are made almost entirely of red stone.

He certainly had style....

but was later sued by Jordan Mechner for stealing the designs from his videogame Prince of Persia.

Akbar had some great architects and craftsmen, but being the manager of the empire he probably didn't understand why the civil engineers weren't so enthusiastic about the site, while at the same time getting excited by the marketing guy's hype and so pressed ahead regardless. Upon completion of the new capital, somebody realized that the area didn't have enough water and so the site was abandoned.

"Oh fuck," the Emperor said.

Oh well, we can thank that monumental fuckup for giving us one of the best preserved pieces of Mughal architecture in the country - and I must say it's definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

"Meh," the goat said.

Behind the fort is there is also a rather nice and large mosque that's worth a look around,

Worth a look

and has some nice city views out the back.

And now you're going to start thinking that I like goats.

Near the entrance there are tonnes of very pesky children asking you for your entrance ticket in order to on sell them to locals (or so they say). Even if you don't have a ticket they like to follow you for about 5 minutes saying "Give me your ticket. Give me your ticket" constantly.

Strolling down the hill back to our car we come across some kids playing a grame of cricket in the middle of some dilapidated ruins, so I join in and have a go, meanwhile forgetting to take a picture *sigh*.