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India

Current stop: Fatehpur Sikri Palace
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Fatehpur Sikri is yet another UNESCO site that has had lots of funding recently pumped into it. It was more civilized than when we last visited, but not nearly so much fun. Fatephur Sikri was built by Emperor Akbar in 1571 but was abandoned a few years later for lack of water. Too bad. Being abandoned saved it from being overrun by invaders or crowded by later residents. Today the shell of the city stands as a reminder of "what once was" in Mughal architecture.


We got our first taste of Jain architecture here, with ornate brackets in warm red sandstone adorning all the posts and columns. 



And Breck thought some of the carvings looked like something straight out of Geonosis (a planet in Attack of the Clones, a Star Wars movie). And he's right - they do.



There are many scholarly reports detailing all the buildings and rooms that we saw, but we were just plain impressed with the details and colors.



Figuring out the real purpose behind each building became somewhat of a game. Who would've thought that the room at the left was a series of stables, with the circles to hold animals' tethers?


There were a few areas of dedicated greenery that contrasted sharply with the dry and hot paved courtyards, typical screened window coverings, to let in breezes and keep out inquisitive eyes, and lots of reconstruction work going on being done by hand).

more than we can do justice to in pictures.


There were fantastically carved lintels in every doorway...


The family explorations took us up, down, around, and over all the streets of the city, as we marvelled at the striking city plan.
The kids found a pack of dogs here, so while they couldn’t tell you a thing about Fatehpur Sikri, they could tell you all about attempts to persuade mom to stuff a puppy in our backpack. 
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