Day 38 Agra to Jaipur

We slept in a bit, went for breakfast and then packed for our long drive to Jaipur with one stop along the way to see the city of Fatehpur Sikri. Our faithful driver Ravinder was waiting and we picked up Ashish en route.

An extensive red sandstone walled complex founded in 1569 by the Emperor Akbar and served as the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1571 to 1585. After his military victories over Chittor and Ranthambore, Akbar decided to shift his capital from Agra to a new location 23 miles (37 km) W.S.W on the Sikri ridge, to honour the Sufi saint Salim Chishti. All of the buildings are made of local red sand stone and covered in carvings.

One of the buildings had every surface covered by carving, this was where the women dressed themselves to dance for the king and he thought that the most beautiful building should inspire the ladies to decorate themselves from head to toe and be equally as beautiful.

Originally all the building were painted with bright colors but sadly few traces of paint remain. The skill level of the artists was phenomenal. To this day they still carve stone in this area and some of the artisans are decedents of the original builders.
In the middle of one buildings is a huge Pillar about 15ft tall and showing the 5 major religions of the world carved from a single piece of sandstone, incredible to see.

Back to the van for the 5 hour drive to Jaipur. The landscape is mostly small farms and brick factories. We did pass a few places where they still carve the stone and marble, awesome to see on the side of the road for sale, these guys are really artists.

Arrived at our hotel only to find loads of kids there. We asked what was going on and were informed that a Bollywood star was also staying at that hotel and they were waiting for a glimpse of the star!