There are two entrances, approached by broad flights of steps.  The one on the east side is the Emperor’s Gate, by which Akbar entered the mosque from the palace, and the other, the majestic Baland Darwaza, or High Gate, which towers above everything on the south side, and even dwarfs the mosque itself with its giant proportions.  The latter gate, however, was not a part of the original design, but was added many years after the completion of the mosque, to celebrate Akbar’s victorious campaign in the Deccan.

The mosque itself was built in honour of the Saint of Fatehpur, Sheikh Salim Chishti, whose tomb, enclosed in a shrine of white marble, carved with the delicacy of ivory-work, glitters like silver on the right of the quadrangle.  Barren women, both Hindu and Muhammadan, tie bits of string or shreds of cloth to the marble trellis-work as tokens that if blessed with a son they will present an offering to the shrine.  Close by is a plainer, but much larger mausoleum, for his grandson, Nawab Islam Khan, who was made Governor of Bengal by Jahangir.  This also contains the remains of many other of the Sheikh’s male descendants.  A separate vault, called the Zanana Rauza, for the women of his family is formed by enclosing a portion of the adjoining cloisters.

The mosque proper contains three chapels, crowned by domes.  The principal one, in the centre, is screened by the facade of the entrance, the doorway being recessed, in the usual style of Saracenic buildings, in a great porch or semi-dome.  An inscription over the main archway gives the date of the completion of the mosque as A.D. 1571.  The chapels are connected with each other by noble colonnades of a decidedly Hindu or Jain character.  The Saracenic arches combine most happily with the Hindu construction, and the view down the “long-drawn aisles” is singularly impressive.  Much of the charm of the interior is due to the quiet reserve and dignity of the decoration, which is nearly all in the style of Arabian mosques, and may account for the statement on the central arch, that “this mosque is a duplicate of the Holy Place” (at Mecca).

At each end of the mosque there is a set of five rooms for the mullahs who conducted the service; above them are galleries for the ladies of the zanana.  Spacious cloisters surround three sides of the quadrangle; these are divided into numerous cells for the maulvis and their pupils.

The triumphal gateway, called the BALAND DARWAZA (Plate XIII.), is really a building in itself.  It must be seen from the outside of the quadrangle, for, magnificent as it is there, it certainly does not harmonize with the mosque viewed from the quadrangle.  This mighty portal, 176 feet in height from the roadway, is a landmark for miles around.  From the top of it the Taj, twenty-five miles away, and the distant Fort of Bharatpur are visible.

There are three doors recessed in the immense alcove on the front of the gate.  One is the horseshoe door, so called from the numerous votive offerings of owners of sick horses, donkeys, and bullocks, which were nailed on in the hope of obtaining the favour of the saint.  The doorway on the right of this has the following inscription carved over it in Arabic:—­