New photos, mostly from Agra

Storm-Ji, Arjun and seven of us students woke at the crack of dawn on Friday to catch the express train to Fatapur Sikhri. We spent a day and a half there, at the ancient capital of Akbar's empire. On Saturday we hit the road again, making the short trip to Agra. It is the site of Shah Jahan's capital (the Agra red fort) and also where he constructed his famous monument to his late wife, Moomtaz--the Taj Mahal. The trip was excellent: 3.5 days of art history and historic architecture, at some of the most important sites of Mughal construction. It was also nice to be traveling in a smaller group for a change. Storm-Ji was an excellent guide as usual, and she got us special (rare) access to some parts of the monuments not open to tourists.


Storm-Ji lectures at Fatapur Sikhri as we listen on.


Katherine caught, Fatapur Sikhri.


The Darga (tomb) at Fatapur Sikhri. The lacy screens surrounded the inner sanctum are made from meticulously carved marble, in single slabs. This is called "jolli."

A detail of the jolli from the previous photo.


Local women lounge at the mosque, Fatapur Sikri.

Our program's coordinating assistant and CPA, Arjun, came with our smaller group to Agra. He asked me to take this photo of him posing (quite seriously) in front of the Darga at Fatapur Sikhri. He is a very sweet and funny man.


A monument to Akbar's favorite elephant, just outside the perimeter wall of the fort at Fatapur Sikri. It is several stories high; its overall shape and "tusk" spikes, make it a mega-phallice: phallic upon phallic.

Here we are at the top of the elephant monument.


Outside the mosque, steps lead down the hilltop towards the village itself. A temporary ferris wheel has been installed below to attract the younger devotees after prayers.


Me outside of Akbar's tomb, Agra.

Akbar's tomb, Agra.


Restoration work by the Indian Archaeological Society in progress, at the private court mosque of Agra's red fort.

Completed restoration work at the court mosque, Agra red fort.

I.A.S. restoration workers break for lunch at the site. They work eight hours a day, six days a week and still, progress is very slow. The I.A.S. is a very good, but sometimes frustrating organization according to Storm-Ji.


Here is my requisite silly photo in front of the Taj Mahal. We rose in the dark on Sunday morning so that we arrived there in time to see the sun rise on the monument. The Taj is everything it has been cracked up to be.


[This is from a while ago, but I like it a lot and I never got around to posting it.] Workers sleep at the job-site, four stories up, in a flat being renovated (Delhi).