Agra Fort is located in Agra, India. The fort is also known as Lal Qila, Fort Rouge and Red Fort of Agra. It is about 2.5 km northwest of its much more famous sister monument, the Taj Mahal. The fort can be more accurately described as a walled palatial city.

The entire site is crescent shaped, with 21 meter high walls, surrounded by a moat, facing out towards the Yamuna River. The perimeter of the site measures out to about 2.4 kilometers of towering red sandstone walls.

The walls have two gates, the 'Delhi Gate' and the 'Lahore Gate' (sometimes called Amar Singh Gate).The Delhi Gate is considered the grandest of the gates and leads into an inner gate called the Hathi Pol (Elephant Gate). Due to the fact that the Indian military (the Parachute Brigade in particular) is still using the northern portion of the Agra Fort, the Delhi Gate cannot be used by the public. Tourists enter via the Lahore Gate. Lahore Gate is named so because it faces Lahore, now in Pakistan.

The site is very important in terms of architectural history. Some of the most historically interesting mixing of Hindu and Islamic architecture reside there. In fact, some of the decorations are Islamic and yet feature dragons, elephants and birds, instead of the patterns and calligraphy, very much unheard of.

Fatehpur Sikri was the political capital of India's Mughal Empire under Akbar's reign, from 1571 until 1585, when it was abandoned, ostensibly due to lack of water.

Fatehpur Sikri shared its imperial duties as a capital city with Agra, where a bulk of the arsenal, treasure hoards, and other reserves were kept at its Red Fort for security. During a crisis, the court, harem, and treasury could be removed to Agra, only 26 miles away, less than a day's march.

The layout of the city shows a conscious attempt to produce rich spatial effects by the organisation of built forms around open spaces in interesting ways. Of particular note is the way in which shifts in axes occur as one moves along the city and the location of squares in important places with buildings forming a backdrop or envelope.