World Travel Guides

Agra is a city on banks of the Yamuna River in Uttar Pradesh. It finds mention in the  epic Mahabharata when it was called Agrabana, or Paradise. Ptolemy, the famous  second century A.D. geographer, marked it on his map of the world as Agra.  Tradition and legend ascribe the present city of Raja Badal Singh (around 1475 A.D.)  whose Fort, Badalgarh, Stood on or near the site of the present Fort. However, the  12th century A.D. Persian poet Salman writes of a desperate assault on the fortress  of Agra, then held by one King Jaipal, by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. It was ruled by  Sultan Sikandar Lodi in the year 1506. It achieved fame as the capital of the Mughal  emperors from 1526 to 1658 and remains a major tourist destination because of its  many splendid Mughal-era buildings, most notably the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and  Fatehpur Sikri, all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Agra is a medieval city situated on the banks of the river Yamuna. It is generally  accepted that Sultan Sikandar Lodi, the Ruler of Delhi Sultanate founded it in the  year 1504. After the sultan’s death the city passed on to his son Sultan Ibrahim Lodi.  He ruled his Sultanate from Agra until he fell fighting to Babur in the First battle of  Panipat fought in 1526.

The golden age of the city began with the Mughals. It was known then as Akbarabad  and remained the capital of the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar, Jahangir and  Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan later shifted his capital to Shahjahanabad in the year 1649.

Since Akbarabad was one of the most important cities in India under the Mughals, it  witnessed a lot of building activity. Babar, the founder of the Mughal dynasty laid out  the first formal Persian garden on the banks of river Yamuna. The garden is called  the Aram Bagh or the Garden of Relaxation. His grandson Akbar raised the towering  ramparts of the Great Red Fort besides making Agra a center for learning arts,  commerce and religion. Akbar also built a new city on the outskirts of Akbarabad  called Fatehpur Sikri. This city was built in the form of a Mughal military camp in  stone.

His son Jahangir had a love of gardens and flora and fauna and laid many gardens  inside the Red Fort or Laal Kila. Shah Jahan known for his keen interest in  architecture gave Akbarabad its most prized monument, The Taj Mahal. Built in  loving memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the mausoleum was completed in 1648.

Shah Jahan later shifted the capital to Delhi during his reign, but this son Aurangzeb  shifted the capital back to Akbarabad and had his father imprisoned in the Fort there.  Akbarabad remained capital of India during the rule of Aurangzeb until he shifted it to  Aurangabad in the Deccan in 1653. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the city  came under the influence of Marathas and Jats and was called Agra, before falling  into the hands of the British Raj in 1803.

For more information please follow the link – Agra Travel Guide

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