Emil Lerch

Husband, Father, Technologist, Cloud Architect

Trip to the Taj Mahal/Fatehpur Sikri

So I just finished uploading pictures of my trip to the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri. Fatehpur Sikri was very impressive, partly because I had no idea what to expect when I got there (by contrast, most people have an idea of what the Taj looks like and what it’s about).

The wikipedia entry gives some background on the site, but doesn’t mention a very important fact: I’m told that Akbar had 3 wives, one Christian, one Hindu, and one Muslim. The entire architecture of the place incorporates themes from all three religions. An example - the gate called Buland Darwaza is the same height as the Obelisk in St. Peter’s Basilica as an homage to Christians. The wikipedia entries even confirm this. Some of the pictures I took show the various styles. Here’s another example of what I’m talking about.

I’m also working on getting a translation for this Arabic plaque. It’s artistic in nature so it’s not easy to read, even for natives (I have a coworker who is Egyptian).