Carved sandstone spires and figure sculpture on a temple at Khajuraho.
A carved stone chariot wheel on the plinth of the Sun Temple at Konark.
The Taj Mahal in white marble, reflected in its watercourse at dawn.
Temple ruins among granite boulders in the landscape at Hampi.
Rock-cut monuments on the shore at Mahabalipuram.
Carved sandstone spires and figure sculpture on a temple at Khajuraho.
A carved stone chariot wheel on the plinth of the Sun Temple at Konark.
The Taj Mahal in white marble, reflected in its watercourse at dawn.
Temple ruins among granite boulders in the landscape at Hampi.
Rock-cut monuments on the shore at Mahabalipuram.

Agra Fort

Agra, Uttar Pradesh

Inscribed
1983
Period
1565 onward
Property
Cultural
The red sandstone ramparts and gateway of Agra Fort.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles · CC0 · Commons

Agra Fort is a fortified imperial residence on the right bank of the Yamuna, roughly two and a half kilometres upstream of the Taj Mahal. Its walls run for some two and a half kilometres in a rough crescent, rising over twenty metres, and enclose what was effectively a city: audience halls, palaces, mosques, gardens and quarters. It served as the principal seat of the Mughal empire until the court moved to Delhi.

History

Akbar took the site in 1558 and rebuilt what had been a brick fort in red sandstone from 1565. Jahangir and then Shah Jahan altered it heavily, the latter demolishing sections of Akbar's sandstone work to build in white marble. Shah Jahan was deposed by his son Aurangzeb in 1658 and held at the fort until his death in 1666.

Architecture

The outer walls and the Delhi and Amar Singh gates are Akbar's, in dressed red sandstone with inlaid white marble patterning. Inside, the sequence runs from Jahangiri Mahal — Hindu and Central Asian forms worked together in sandstone — to Shah Jahan's marble additions: the Khas Mahal, the Sheesh Mahal with its mirror mosaic, the Diwan-i-Am for public audience and the Diwan-i-Khas for private. The Musamman Burj, an octagonal marble tower over the river, looks directly toward the Taj Mahal.

Significance

Agra Fort records the Mughal style changing in place across three reigns, from Akbar's robust sandstone syncretism to Shah Jahan's marble refinement — the two visible within a few metres of each other. It is also the clearest surviving example of the Mughal fort-palace as a working seat of government rather than a monument.

UNESCO recognition

Inscribed in 1983 under criterion (iii) as an outstanding testimony to Mughal civilisation at its height.

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