Seeing the abandoned former Mughal capital at Fatehphur Sikri
Summary
Just outside of Agra, which tends to be the highlight visit for most people visiting this part of India as they get to see the Taj Mahal, is the very underrated and magnificent fortified ancient city of Fatehphur Sikri. The sight, which was the former capital of the Mughal Empire and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, dominated nearly all of South Asia for almost 200 years before the arrival of the British, includes 3 palaces and a mosque all with gorgeous architecture and without the crowds of some of the main Indian sites
Give it a go for a day trip from Agra, or simply replace Jaipur with Fatehphur Sikri in your itinerary for the Golden Triangle. I actually recommend this along with 5 other changes in my travel entry for India’s Golden Triangle – getting the most out of it
highlights
Seeing the huge 16th Century Jama Masjid Mosque as you walk through the entrance to the main courtyard
#2 Exploring the various long corridors and getting quite quickly away from the crowds of the busier parts of the site
#3 Getting to wander through the former palaces and gardens, with their quite unusual architecture
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Historic abandoned Sites around the World
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone