Place · Mughal mausoleum · India
Akbar's Tomb, Sikandra
Also known as Sikandra, Akbar's Tomb, Tomb of Akbar, Akbar's Mausoleum
Akbar's mausoleum at Sikandra, ten kilometres northwest of Agra on the road to Delhi, begun by Akbar himself in 1600 and completed by Jahangir in 1613. The tomb breaks with Humayun's charbagh plan to introduce a five-tiered pyramidal structure open at the top with the sarcophagus visible from the sky — Akbar's own innovation reflecting his religious syncretism. The complex is set within a 48-hectare charbagh garden entered through a south gate inlaid with marble polychrome arabesques, and Mariam-uz-Zamani's tomb stands within the same gardens. The 1764 raid by Jat ruler Suraj Mal damaged the tomb; the sarcophagus was removed and recovered.
- Date
- 1600–1613
- Function
- Burial and funerary
- Patron dynasty
- Mughal
- Tradition
- Akbarnama; Jahangirnama; ASI conservation records.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 27.221, 78.004
Worth knowing
Sikandra is named for Sikandar Lodi, who had a baradari pavilion here that Akbar incorporated into his tomb's grounds. The open-topped tomb is unique in Mughal practice and reflects Akbar's own instruction that light should fall directly on the grave. The 1972 restoration consolidated the sandstone that had been chipped away by nineteenth-century treasure-hunters.
Connections (2)
- Buried atMariam-uz-Zamani (Harkha Bai)
Mariam-uz-Zamani is buried at Sikandra in a tomb within the same gardens as Akbar's own mausoleum — a Mughal royal burial for the senior Hindu wife of the emperor and the mother of his heir Jahangir. Her tomb is modest compared to Akbar's five-tiered pyramidal structure beside it, but is within the imperial charbagh and is one of the few Mughal royal women's tombs built in a Mughal royal garden rather than as a separate structure. The two tombs together make Sikandra the senior Mughal mausoleum complex of its generation.
- Buried atAkbar
Akbar is buried at Sikandra in the five-tiered pyramidal tomb he himself began in 1600 and his son Jahangir completed in 1613 — a mausoleum that breaks with Humayun's charbagh plan to introduce an open-topped structure in which the sarcophagus lies visible to the sky, reflecting Akbar's religious syncretism. The sarcophagus was damaged by the 1764 Jat raid and recovered. Mariam-uz-Zamani's tomb stands within the same complex.