Caravan Serai Fatehpur Sikri

Caravan Serai Fatehpur Sikri

Caravan Serai is at near Hathi Pol. The building was built as a guesthouse for important persons or traders. Interior of the Serai has a spacious quadrangle court of 74.82m by 82.66m in dimension. There are residential rooms on all the four sides of this grand court. Besides these rooms, there are also terraces built on southeast side of the Serai. These rooms once had pillared verandahs in front, which have now been demolished. The presence of tank and well on the southeast side of Serai suggests that water and toilet facilities were also provided to the guests.

Caravan Serai is located on the slope of the ridge, which was beautifully utilized by terraced construction. It is rectangular in plan having its main entrance in the middle of the northwest side. The gateway stands over a small plinth, which was broken in the middle to allow access to the main entrance archway, which is flanked by two smaller ones. The spandrels of these arches are made up of marble and are decorated with rossets of red sandstone. The smaller arches are also decorated with marble. The soffits of the arches were once decorated with stuccowork in geometrical designs.