Jami Mosque at Fatehpur Sikri from inside the courtyard

Fatehpur Sikri, a remarkable palace city built by the Mughal Emperor Akbar between 1571 and1585, was a favorite subject for India's nineteenth-century photographers. They appear to have been particularly impressed by the scale of its entrance gateway, which led into the courtyard of an expansive mosque. Shown here is the side of the mosque marking the direction of Mecca, towards which Muslim worshippers would have oriented their prayers. Bourne's photographs of architectural monuments and local landscapes are usually devoid of people, except in some instances—such as this one—in which the human figure was useful in highlighting the scale of the building.