Fatehpur Sikri

Fatehpur Sikri is a city founded by Akbar an hour's journey from Agra. Brookes tells how Akbar visited Shaykh Salim Chishti at Sikri for his prayers for an heir; his son Salim, later the emperor Jahangir, was born in 1569, and to celebrate the birth Akbar decided to move his capital to Sikri. ¹

Thousands of craftsmen began work in 1571 on the complex of palace and garden buildings, in what Brookes calls a wholly Indian style. In the courtyard of the great mosque, with its huge red sandstone iwan inlaid with marble, stands the marble tomb of Shaykh Salim; near the mosque is Akbar's private palace of red sandstone, with water channels throughout and a great tank in the main court with a central island reached by bridges. ^{3 2}

Akbar lived there no more than fourteen years. Reasons given for its desertion include an unhealthy site or an inadequate water supply, and it is said that the dam of the lake gave way while the emperor and his friends were on the bank. Akbar moved his court to the Punjab in 1585. ^{1 2}