I'm not sure
how this is done in the US, but here in India I've seen this scene a
few times. It appears the top floors of a concrete constructed
building are held up by sticks (likely bamboo) until the concrete
cures. At least that's what it looks like. The stuff sticking out of
the top is rebar. I assume they're putting on another floor once the
current top one
cures.
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My
hotel was very nice. If my first night in Gurgaon had been in a room
like this, I probably wouldn't of had as much anxiety as I did. This
was at the Hotel Clarks Shiraz on B.B. in Agra. It's certainly not
the nicest hotel in Agra, but it was on par with what I'm used to
for hotel stays. The nicest feature of the room was a 1 litre
automatic teapot. Fill it with a liter of water and it boils it -
fresh clean water at your fingertips. My apartment in Gurgaon should
have
that.
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After arriving in
Agra and checking into the hotel we headed off for a tour of Fatehpur Sikri. It's about 45 minutes
away from Agra. Once there we picked up a local english
speaking guide and checked out the local fort. The way it was
explained to me was the fort was built in honour of Sufi saint Salim
Chishti (Muslim saint). The Mughal Emperor, Akbar the Great had
three wives - one hindu, one christian and one muslim. He also had a
harem full of hundreds of concubines. He had all kinds of children
from the harem, but none of his wives produced a child for him (an
heir to the throne). Akbar went to Salim Chisti with this problem.
After receiving a blessing from Salim Chisthi, one of Akbars wives
(I can't remember which) gave him a son. Eventually he had two
daughters with one of the other wives too. For this blessing and
it's success, Akbar buried Salim Chishti (and all his kin) in the
fort.
Another interesting thing about the fort is the
combination of religions in architecture and worship. Akbar is known
as Akbar the great, because he brought all the people of India
together. He saw no point in multiple religions and gods. In the
fort there is a mosque area for Muslim worship, christian and
hindu.
At some point, they ran out of water in Fatehpur Sikri
and everyone moved back to Agra.
Now that I think about it
and read some of the stuff on Wikipedia, it doesn't all add up (why
combine religions, but create seperate places for them?). Whatever.
The guide was nice and mostly informative.
This was the main
gate to enter the fort. We entered from the side. The fort was
located on a
hill.
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Looking out of one of the arches from the back
of the fort to the main gate at the
front.
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An
example of some of the marble inlays that are very popular in the
Mughal palaces and
forts.
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More marble inlays
with scripts from the Quran
above.
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This is the actual marble tomb in which Salim
Chishti is buried. Yes, those are solid marble screens around
the
walls.
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This is looking through the back hall of the
fort. In the middle, where you can see more people, is the mosque.
It was the beginning of Ramadan, so there were a few Muslims resting
during their 12 hours of
fasting.
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This is the arch of the main gate. The black
things are
beehives.
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Another shot of the main gate and
arch.
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