Agra was founded in 1505 by Sikandar Lodi as his capital

Agra was founded in 1505 by Sikandar Lodi as his capital. Babur, the Mughal warrior, took Agra from Ibrahim Lodi after the Battle of Panipat in 1526. But it is Akbar who made Agra grand. He demolished the Lodi fort and erected a new citadel in red sandstone in the same place, at a cost of about 3.5 million rupees. To this day the semicircular citadel from the 16th century with a circumference of 2.4 kilometres, spread over 94 acres of land parallel to the River Yamuna dominates the city. Its walls are seventy feet high. 

In the early 17th century, William Finch, an English merchant employed by the British East India Company, discovered royal apartments on the riverbank walls, ignoring the sandy open space where parades and elephant fights took place. Inside the castle, the feeling was that of being in any city with lively streets and shops doing good business, but from the outside the fort looked impregnable. The walls have a nine metre thick base and rise to a height of 21.5 metres and are girded by a deep broad moat formerly filled with water drawn from the River Yamuna.