BIG BLOG AHEAD: AGRA FORT
Thought it might be a good time to spruce up the page a bit. The new banner is a picture of the oldest part of Trivandrum, called East Fort. The view is across the temple tank to the Padmanabha Temple. Every big temple in India has a tank like this, and back in the day it was of great service to the local community. Now its got sacred fish in it, and Asenath went there the other day and fed them some popcorn for a bit o' good merit. This view is probably the most characteristic of what the city must've looked like a century or two ago.
As for other changes to the page, I've taken off the 'profile' and 'links' sections, but you can still find the blog history at the bottom of the page.
Okay, now back to Agra, where Asenath and I ventured next to see the awe-inspiring Agra Fort.
Unlike Fateh Pur Sikri (from the previous post), Agra Fort was inhabited for centuries, conquered, defended, lost, and retaken. Generations of Mughals ruled from here until it was taken by the British, who ruled the region from here for some time.
Thus, the imposing entry to the barbicon was not merely for show.
Once inside the barbicon, one gets a view of the massive main gate to the citadel. 
Only some of its original ornamentation remains, and it can be seen toward the base of the towers. The main gate is at an angle to the barbicon gate to prevent elephants from getting up full head of steam when ramming the gates. [The many spikes on the doors were also supposed to deter such tactics, although I think they just ended up making it more of a mess in the end.]
Each of the massive doors of the main gate is opened with the help of a large counterweight, which struck me as totally cool.
After passing through the gate, one enters a very long hallway/bazaar where merchants would have sold high-end goods of interest to the many, many residents of the fort. The same stalls are occupied today by souvenir sellers.
One exits the bazaar hallway to find one of the many palaces within the fort. (I can't recall who lived in this one).
Through another, smaller gate...
...one comes upon the Hall of Public Audience, where the king would attend to the business of commoners, such as adjudicating lawsuits and so forth. 
Here's Ase among the marble pillars. 
The above picture was taken in a small side mosque, which, I believe, was for the use of the queen.
Behind the Hall of Public Audience is a large courtyard and the Hall of Private Audience, where the king met special guests. It is the smaller white hall at the top left of the picture.
In front of it is a plaza overlooking the Yamuna River, where stands the king's black throne base. Its carved from a single piece of rock. In the distance is the Taj.
I wanted to show again some close ups of the workmanship in the Hall of Private Audience, which is incredible.
Here's a detail of how the semi-precious stones, gold, and other materials were inlaid into the marble.
Asenath wrote about the story of the Taj Mahal in an earlier blog, and how its builder, the emperor Shah Jahan (who built it when his beloved wife Mumtaz died), was overthrown by his son Aurangzeb and imprisoned. Well, it was here in the Agra Fort that Aurangzeb imprisoned his father (in royal style, of course), and Shah Jahan spent the rest of his life only able to view the Taj and the last resting place of his beloved from a distance. He didn't travel back to the Taj until his remains were interred there with no ceremony.
Here are some pics of his digs in the Fort and his view of the Taj.
I think this was his own audience hall, part of a larger complex. Not bad for a deposed ruler, eh? The room pictured below was particularly amazing, inlaid with gold, jade, lapus lazuli, you name it. 
The Mughals had impressive engineering, including piped-in heated water and air conditioning. Here is the fountain in Shah Jahan's rooms. Make sure you zoom in on the picture above.
And here is Ase taking in Shah Jahan's forlorn view of the Taj.
Okay, now I know this is a long post, so here are just a few other highlights from the Fort. [You're like to find yourself doin' a whole lotta neck cranin' in these places, so I threw in a couple of examples of that too.] 
This fort was completely amazing. At one time it would have been the center of high culture for perhaps thousands of miles in any direction, and it was wild to imagine it filled with emperors, generals, courtesans, dancers, musicians, merchants, soldiers, and a cast of thousands. Over time, new construction at the fort was undertaken atop older works and today there are supposedly a massive and chaotic tangle of subterranean rooms, halls, cisterns, dungeons, secret passages, and so forth beneath the buildings pictured above. They're blocked off sadly, but I got the impression they have not been well-explored in modern times.
I was going to include the Taj in this post, but I'm afraid it'll be a bit too much. So, I'll leave it until next post, but here's a teaser...
As for other changes to the page, I've taken off the 'profile' and 'links' sections, but you can still find the blog history at the bottom of the page.
Okay, now back to Agra, where Asenath and I ventured next to see the awe-inspiring Agra Fort.
Unlike Fateh Pur Sikri (from the previous post), Agra Fort was inhabited for centuries, conquered, defended, lost, and retaken. Generations of Mughals ruled from here until it was taken by the British, who ruled the region from here for some time.Thus, the imposing entry to the barbicon was not merely for show.
Once inside the barbicon, one gets a view of the massive main gate to the citadel. 
Only some of its original ornamentation remains, and it can be seen toward the base of the towers. The main gate is at an angle to the barbicon gate to prevent elephants from getting up full head of steam when ramming the gates. [The many spikes on the doors were also supposed to deter such tactics, although I think they just ended up making it more of a mess in the end.]Each of the massive doors of the main gate is opened with the help of a large counterweight, which struck me as totally cool.
After passing through the gate, one enters a very long hallway/bazaar where merchants would have sold high-end goods of interest to the many, many residents of the fort. The same stalls are occupied today by souvenir sellers.One exits the bazaar hallway to find one of the many palaces within the fort. (I can't recall who lived in this one).
Through another, smaller gate...
...one comes upon the Hall of Public Audience, where the king would attend to the business of commoners, such as adjudicating lawsuits and so forth. 
Here's Ase among the marble pillars. 
The above picture was taken in a small side mosque, which, I believe, was for the use of the queen.Behind the Hall of Public Audience is a large courtyard and the Hall of Private Audience, where the king met special guests. It is the smaller white hall at the top left of the picture.
In front of it is a plaza overlooking the Yamuna River, where stands the king's black throne base. Its carved from a single piece of rock. In the distance is the Taj.
I wanted to show again some close ups of the workmanship in the Hall of Private Audience, which is incredible.
Here's a detail of how the semi-precious stones, gold, and other materials were inlaid into the marble.
Asenath wrote about the story of the Taj Mahal in an earlier blog, and how its builder, the emperor Shah Jahan (who built it when his beloved wife Mumtaz died), was overthrown by his son Aurangzeb and imprisoned. Well, it was here in the Agra Fort that Aurangzeb imprisoned his father (in royal style, of course), and Shah Jahan spent the rest of his life only able to view the Taj and the last resting place of his beloved from a distance. He didn't travel back to the Taj until his remains were interred there with no ceremony.Here are some pics of his digs in the Fort and his view of the Taj.
I think this was his own audience hall, part of a larger complex. Not bad for a deposed ruler, eh? The room pictured below was particularly amazing, inlaid with gold, jade, lapus lazuli, you name it. 
The Mughals had impressive engineering, including piped-in heated water and air conditioning. Here is the fountain in Shah Jahan's rooms. Make sure you zoom in on the picture above.
And here is Ase taking in Shah Jahan's forlorn view of the Taj.
Okay, now I know this is a long post, so here are just a few other highlights from the Fort. [You're like to find yourself doin' a whole lotta neck cranin' in these places, so I threw in a couple of examples of that too.] 
This fort was completely amazing. At one time it would have been the center of high culture for perhaps thousands of miles in any direction, and it was wild to imagine it filled with emperors, generals, courtesans, dancers, musicians, merchants, soldiers, and a cast of thousands. Over time, new construction at the fort was undertaken atop older works and today there are supposedly a massive and chaotic tangle of subterranean rooms, halls, cisterns, dungeons, secret passages, and so forth beneath the buildings pictured above. They're blocked off sadly, but I got the impression they have not been well-explored in modern times.I was going to include the Taj in this post, but I'm afraid it'll be a bit too much. So, I'll leave it until next post, but here's a teaser...
