Agra Fort
The Mughals' red fortress, and the window from which Shah Jahan ended up watching the Taj.
Duration
1 hr 30 min – 2 hrs 30 min
Best time
Late afternoon
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
Akbar rebuilt the fort in red sandstone from 1565 on the foundations of an older stronghold: two and a half kilometres of semicircular ramparts, a double wall, moats. His successors added white marble palaces, so the fort mixes two reigns and two materials.
Shah Jahan, who had built the Taj Mahal for his wife, was shut up here for the last eight years of his life by his son Aurangzeb. His gilded cell, the Musamman Burj tower, looks over the Yamuna to the mausoleum two kilometres away: he watched it until he died, and it is still the view from there.
Getting there
Two and a half kilometres north-west of the Taj Mahal, on the same bank. Rickshaw or taxi, ten minutes.
What the price covers
paid entry, with a foreign rate distinct from the Indian one; reduced on production of the same day's Taj Mahal ticket. Rates to be checked
Rules on site
The Indian army still occupies seventy-five per cent of the fort: the visitable part is marked and the rest is off limits, no discussion. The red sandstone gets scorching in the middle of the day.
