Agra
Country: India · 1,585,705 inhabitants
Attractions
Wikivoyage
Agra (Hindi: आगरा Āgrā) is the city of the Taj Mahal, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, around 200 km from Delhi. It is home to three UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort in the city and Fatehpur Sikri, 40 km away. There are also many other buildings and tombs from Agra's days of glory as the capital of the Mughal Empire.
Besides these three sites, the city has little else to recommend it. Pollution, especially smog and litter, is rampant, and visitors are pestered by swarms of touts and hawkers at every monument, besides the inner Taj Mahal which, once you are in, is free of scams and touts. The sites are some of the wonders of the world, and no trip to India is complete without at least one visit to the Taj. For the vast majority of visitors, a single day in Agra is more than enough.
Wikipedia
Agra (; Hindi: Āgrā, pronounced [ˈaːɡɾaː] ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about 230 kilometres (140 mi) south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. It is also the part of Braj region. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the fourth-most populous city in Uttar Pradesh and twenty-third most populous city in India.
Agra's notable historical period began during Sikandar Khan Lodi's reign, but the golden age of the city began with the Mughals in the early 16th century. Agra was the foremost city of the Indian subcontinent and the capital of the Mughal Empire under Mughal emperors Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Under Mughal rule, Agra became a centre for learning, arts, commerce, and religion, and saw the construction of the Agra Fort, Sikandra and Agra's most prized monument, the Taj Mahal, constructed between 1632 and 1648 by Shah Jahan in remembrance of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. With the decline of the Mughal empire in the late 18th century, the city fell first to Marathas and later to the East India Company. After Independence, Agra has developed into an industrial town, with a booming tourism industry, along with footwear, leather and other manufacturing. The Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The city features mild winters, hot and dry summers and a monsoon season, and is famous for its Mughlai cuisine. Agra is part of the Golden Triangle tourist circuit, along with Delhi and Jaipur; and the Uttar Pradesh Heritage Arc, a tourist circuit of Uttar Pradesh, along with Lucknow and Varanasi.