Landmark · Agra

Agra Fort

In 60 seconds

Agra Fort is a walled Mughal palace-city on the Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India — rebuilt in red sandstone by Akbar between 1565 and 1573, the seat of the empire for most of the century that followed, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. ASI's own page gives entry at ₹50 for Indian, SAARC and BIMSTEC visitors and ₹600 for other foreign visitors, of which ₹550 is the ASI fee and ₹50 an Agra Development Authority toll — and that toll is waived if you have already bought the Taj's ₹500 Pathkar the same day. Open sunrise to sunset every day including Friday, which makes it the answer on the one day the Taj is closed. Roughly a third of the enclosure is open; the north is still an army cantonment. Allow two to three hours, and go for the Musamman Burj — the marble tower where Shah Jahan spent the last eight years of his life a prisoner of his son, looking two and a half kilometres downriver at the building he had made for his wife.

Fees & timings

CHECKED AGAINST OFFICIAL SOURCES · AUGUST 2026

Entry — foreign visitors	₹600 at the counter (₹550 ASI + ₹50 ADA toll) · ₹550 online
Entry — Indian, SAARC & BIMSTEC	₹50 at the counter · ₹35 online
Children under 15	Free, any nationality
If you did the Taj first	The ₹500 Taj Pathkar covers the toll here — buy the ₹550 ticket online
Hours	Sunrise to sunset, daily — open on Fridays
Entrance	Amar Singh Gate, on the south side
Allow	2 – 3 hours

Spot a change on the ground? Tell us — we fix it in days.

Only part of the fort is open — the northern sector is an Indian Army cantonment, and has been since the British took Agra in 1803. The Sheesh Mahal is frequently locked; ask the guard rather than assuming, because it is sometimes opened on request.

The tower he died in

The Musamman Burj is the octagonal marble tower on the river face, built by Shah Jahan between 1631 and 1640 for Mumtaz Mahal — lattices thin enough to see through, pietra dura underfoot. In 1658 his son Aurangzeb won the war of succession and confined him here. He lived in it for eight years, attended by his daughter Jahanara, and died on 22 January 1666. The Taj is visible from the balcony. The story that he watched it in a hand mirror as he died has no contemporary source; the view needs no help.

The India Unfolded edit

Four things to look at, that nobody points out

Jahangir's bathtub

Outside the Jahangiri Mahal stands a monolithic cistern of reddish porphyry dated 1611 — one carved block, steps cut into the rim, big enough to sit in. It has served as garden ornament, curiosity and photo prop. It is also one of very few objects here you can date to the year.

The room where the Peacock Throne stood

The Diwan-i-Khas held Shah Jahan's jewelled throne, the Koh-i-Noor set into it, before the court moved to the new Red Fort at Delhi. Nadir Shah carried it off in 1739. What you are standing in is an empty marble room that once contained the most expensive object on earth.

Two emperors, two colours

Akbar built in red sandstone. His grandson pulled parts of it down and rebuilt in white marble. Stand in the courtyard between the Jahangiri Mahal and the Khas Mahal and the join is in front of you — sixty years and two temperaments, in two materials.

The mirror room, if it is open

The Sheesh Mahal was the royal dressing room, its vaults set with thousands of pieces of mirror glass. Under a single flame it does what Amber's does. It is usually shut, and a torch is worth carrying on the chance that it isn't.

What isn’t true

“He watched the Taj in a mirror as he died”

Legend

It is told daily on the balcony of the Musamman Burj and printed in most guidebooks. There is no contemporary source for it. What the record does support is plainer and harder: held from 1658, joined by a daughter who chose the imprisonment, dead on 22 January 1666 in a tower he had built for his wife, with her tomb in view from the window.

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