Because of its historical importance as the capital of the Mughal Empire and its outstanding architecture, Fatehpur Sikri was awarded the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.

According to historian Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, the region flourished under Sunga rule and then under Sikarwar Rajputs, who built a fortress when they controlled the area from 7th to 16th century, until the Battle of Khanwa (1527).

[9][10] Basing his arguments on the excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1999–2000 at the Chabeli Tila, senior Agra journalist Bhanu Pratap Singh said the antique pieces, statues, and structures all point to a lost "culture and religious site," more than 1,000 years ago.

"The excavations yielded a rich crop of Jain statues, hundreds of them, including the foundation stone of a temple with the date.

[11][12][13] But preceding Akbar's appropriation of the site for his capital city, his predecessors Babur and Humayun did much to redesign Fatehpur Sikri's urban layout.

Buland Darwaza was one such organising element, which at a height of 150 feet towered over the city and is now one of the most recognisable Mughal monuments in the country.

[15] Abul Fazl records Akbar's reasons for the foundation of the city in Akbarnama: "In as much as his exalted sons (Salim and Murad) had been born at Sikri, and the God-knowing spirit of Shaikh Salim had taken possession thereof, his holy heart desired to give outward splendour to this spot which possessed spiritual grandeur.

Now that his standards had arrived at this place, his former design was pressed forward, and an order was issued that the superintendents of affairs should erect lofty buildings for the special use of the Shahinshah.

Akbar began the construction of a religious compound in honour of the Chisti saint Sheikh Salim, who had predicted the birth of Jahangir.

By constructing his capital at the khanqah of Sheikh Salim, Akbar associated himself with this popular Sufi order and brought legitimacy to his reign through this affiliation.

[23] While chasing Daulat Rao Sindhia's battalions in October 1803, Gerard Lake left the most cumbersome baggage and siege guns in the town.

The general layout of the ground structures, especially the "continuous and compact pattern of gardens and services and facilities" that characterised the city leads urban archaeologists to conclude that Fatehpur Sikri was built primarily to afford leisure and luxury to its famous residents.

[31] The remarkable preservation of these original spaces allows modern archaeologists to reconstruct scenes of Mughal court life, and to better understand the hierarchy of the city's royal and noble residents.

It is connected to Agra and neighbouring centres by road, where regular bus services are operated by UPSRTC, in addition to tourist buses and taxis.

In her poetical illustration to an engraving of a painting by William Purser, Futtypore Sicri (Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833), Letitia Elizabeth Landon associates its abandonment by Akbar with 'the revenge of the dead'.

[34] Vita Sackville-West, in her novel All Passion Spent, places the key meeting between Deborah, Lady Slane, and Mr FitzGeorge, at Fatehpur Sikri.

She stood again on the terrace of the deserted Indian city looking across the brown landscape where puffs of rising dust marked at intervals the road to Agra.