Palace of Fatehpur Sikri (INDIA), built in the 16th century under the reign of Akbar. Detail of the wooden ceiling, above a column. - Thanks for viewing & comments - Thanks to SNAKEY for the following comments : "Fatehpur Sikri derives its name from the village of Sikri which occupied the spot before, the prefix Fatehpur, City of Victory, was added in 1573 after Akbar's conquest of Gujerat in that year. Akbar chose this site for a city out of reverence for Sheikh Salim, a religious mystic of the Chisti order who prophesied that he would have three sons. In order to ensure the efficacy of the prophecy Akbar moved his pregnant wife to Sikri where she had two sons. In response Akbar decided to build an imperial mosque and palace at the village of Sikri. The location of the palace and mosque at the site encouraged further settlement by courtiers, noblemen and their attendants so that within a few years a city had grown up which was enclosed by a defensive wall. The city is built on the ridge of a hill next to a lake which has now dried up, giving rise to the theory that the city was abandoned because its water supply had failed. The centre of the city was the palace and mosque, which are located on the top of the ridge overlooking the lake, while the rest of the city was located on the sides of the ridge away from the lake. The city occupies an area of 5 km square with a wall on three sides and a fourth side open to the lake. There are three main gateways in the city wall between which there are semi-circular buttress towers."