Day 28 - Agra

Well... today I was blown away by the Taj Mahal, and I'm all Taj Mahal'ed out.

We got up at sunrise and walked around the Taj's outer gate to get a view of it from the river. The sunrise gave the Taj a warm glow, and we took a boat ride across the river and many pictures.

A gave the fort visit a miss, a instead relaxed and mooched around, saving my wonderlust for the sunset visit to the inside of the Taj Mahal area. We all met up at the hotel at about 3pm, then entered the Taj by the east gate. Initially all you see are the gardens and the red sandstone, so we sat in the shade and Hannah told us a bit about the Taj before we got our first look.

The Taj was built in 1630-1653 by the 5th Mogul emperor, Shah Jahan, as a tomb for his most beloved wife Mumtaz. When Mumtaz died giving birth to her 14 child, Shah Jahan's hair had gone white overnight. The Taj Mahal took 23 years to build, and you can't really tell from the pictures, but it is made from the finest marble, and inlaid with semi-precious stones. It looks exactly the same from all 4 sides, and the gardens and surrounding building are carefully arranged to enhance it's beauty. Shah Jahan had orinally planned to have a second Taj, made of black stone instead of marble, built across the river to house his own body. Unfortunately this never happened - the Emperor's son was a complete nutcase, and took over the rule by killing his brothers and locking up his father. When Shah Jahan died, his body was placed next to that of his wife, and is now the only thing that is not in perfect symmetrical alignment in the entire place.

With this little introduction, we walked throught the main gateway and had our first, utterly surreal, view of the Taj.






So yeah - that was amazing. Below is cheesy photo of the group in front of the Taj - I've scanned it in so quality is not great - but you get the general idea!