Most Impressive Building of Fatehpur Sikri: Turkish Sultana’s House

In the capacity of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the monuments of Fatehpur Sikri, have many jewels in the form of a white marble tomb, a lofty gateway, a huge mosque, pillared palaces, interesting baths and many more, But there is a small, picturesque building in the royal enclosure of Fatehpur that impressed me the most. This small building is known as Turkish Sultana’s House and it is one of the most highly ornamented buildings in Fatehpur Sikri.

It contains only a single apartment, surrounded by a verandah, but in the carving of every surface within there is a wealth of invention and decorative skills rarely achieved anywhere in the mughal monuments. In the word of Fergusson :

It is one of the richest, the most beautiful and the most characteristic’s of all Akbar’s buildings. It is impossible to conceive anything so picturesque in outline or any building carved out and ornamented to such an extent without the smallest approach to being overdone or in bad taste.

The interior of this house is as richly carved as the exterior and hardly a square inch of space has been allowed to remain unattended.

The lower section of each inner wall are especially remarkable with glamorous carvings of trees, flowers, birds and animals in eight different panels. However, no extra care is there inside the pavilion to protect the carvings from increasing flux of tourists. They are handled badly by them and loosing their shines with the time.

This house is believed to be the residence of a Turkish Queen, one of the Akbar’s favorite, which name was Turkish Sultana. But there is no strong evidences available to support this fact.  Considering the Mughal Architecture,  it was very strange to built a  queen’s palace outside the harem. This building was probably one of the king’s personal palaces.

Its exterior as well as interior has ornamental relief of geometric and floral designs in red sand stone which give the impression of timber decoration.

During the visit of Fatehpur Sikri, I enjoyed the carvings of this building much more in comparison to the other buildings. Every inch of this building is very much fascinating. It is hard to believe that those carvings were erected on the red sandstones to architect this building in such a nice way.

Apart from Turkish Sultana’s House, the royal enclosure of Fatehpur Sikri has many other attractions like Jodha Bai’s Palace, Birbal’s Palace, Mariam’s Palace, Anup Talao, Panch Mahal etc. Stay connected with this blog for the future posts on those fabulous attractions of this World Heritage Site.