INDIA || Agra - travel vlog (Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Fathepur Sikri) 15 Degrees North

15° North are travelling again! This time we are in India in the Mughal city of Agrai. There we visit: Taj Mahal, Agra Fort & Fathepur Sikri.
Jérémy and Ben here again! We love to travel and to satisfy our wanderlust, we are on a worldwide odyssey exploring the best places for a break around the world. We love to escape Britain to experience the best culture, cuisine and attractions that the globe has to offer. If you’re a tourist like us and just need a good itinerary for what to do and how to do it when you’re in Agra, we will show you the best things to put on your itinerary.
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Agra is a small city in northern India, best known for containing one of the world’s most beautiful buildings: the Taj Mahal. Only a few hours from Delhi, visitors tend to visit Agra as part of a trip known as The Golden Triangle, flying in and out of Delhi and travelling by road to Jaipur and then Agra.
To understand this region, you need to understand the Mughal Empire. The Mughals were actually from Uzbekistan, but during the sixteenth century they conquered large swathes of central Asia, including a huge portion of India. Over time, they lost their homeland, so Agra became their capital.
The Mughals were Muslims, so the region’s architecture began to evolve, reminiscent of that from Iran and the Middle East. Similarly, maharajas were replaced by emperors and unlike the leaders of Jaipur and Jodhpur, the Mughals were relatively restrained when it came to matters of the heart. As a result, the influence of the individual wives became stronger and their rivalry with each other more bitter.
At this fortress, the emperor had three wives and each one had to be built their own separate court so that they didn’t have to mix with one another. And because one was Muslim, one was Hindu and one was Catholic, the styles of architecture in each are quite different.
Agra Fort was the main residence for the Mughal rulers until the capital shifted to Delhi in 1638. So big that it’s more accurately described as a walled city, the fort dominates the centre of the city. Probably the fort’s most famous resident was Shah Jahan, whose reign saw the Mughals at their absolute height.
Aged fourteen, when he was still a prince, he became engaged to Mumtaz Mahal, whom he absolutely adored. Due to astrological problems, the young boy had to wait five years to marry her, so in the meantime he took a first wife and had his first son, but Mumtaz remained his true love. They had fourteen children when they finally wed, but while the emperor took a few more wives, it was to Mumtaz that his heart belonged. So when she tragically died in childbirth at age 38, her husband was so bereft that he commissioned the grandest and most expensive mausoleum he could envision. That building would be the Taj Mahal.
One of the most iconic buildings in the world, the Taj Mahal is made from translucent white marble. Taking 22 years to build, it was finished in 1653 and sits on the bank of the River Yamuna. So what did they do with Mumtaz’s body for 22 years then? Well she was temporarily buried elsewhere, before moving her into the mausoleum when it was finished. And then they buried Shah Jahan beside her when he died five years after his masterpiece’s completion.
Nowadays the Taj Mahal sits in the middle of perfect landscaped gardens, but it wasn’t always this way. When the British Raj took power, they found the famed mausoleum sitting in a state of disrepair. It was extensively renovated in 1908, which included adding the rolling European-style lawns. One of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World, it is undoubtedly one of the most iconic structures on this planet. And it absolutely lived up to its hype. We were blown away by it.