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Current stop: Fatehpur Sikri Mosque Previous: Fatehpur Sikri Palace Next: Bharatpur

Across the way from Fatepuhr Sikri itself is the Jama Masjid, an enormous mosque that blends elements of Islamic, Persian, and Hindu design. It is still used today, and so we found ourselves in the midst of a Friday afternoon crowd enjoying the sunny, pleasant weather.

One of the big draws is the fantastically carved lattice screens on the tombs. Not only are they beautiful, but they are also held in high regard by locals, who throng the site to tie pieces of strings to the inner surfaces. And of course, there are people who are very willing to sell them the very best in strings. This man was doing a brisk business nearby, probably helped by the book of testimonials (with pictures!) of those who had bought his strings and had their wishes granted. Fantastic stuff!!

Apparently death is a really big draw here, as we were astounded by the number of tombs that we saw. Inside the mosque, alongside the courtyard, out between buildings - everywhere we dead people. We didn't see much wailing and carrying on, so we guessed that these were the long gone, but we never found out for sure.

Of course, there are more reasons for the living to come here. We missed prayer time, but there were people all around the mosque performing their rituals.

And as we left we received a blessing from this man in green waiting outside. As we were planning on driving on to our next stop, we figured we could use all the blessings we could get!!

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