Taj Mahal & Agra Fort

Early this morning we made our way to the Taj Mahal before most tourists arrived. We entered through the east gate (which is a 3-minute walk from our hotel!) and admired the main gate of the Taj Mahal complex before entering. The gates are constructed from red sandstone and marble and are inlaid with semi-precious stones from Europe, Africa, India, and other parts of Asia.

It was a bit foggy this morning, so some of our pictures didn’t turn out as well as we would have liked, but in others the fog seemed to add to the mystery and magic of the Taj Mahal.

The Taj itself is beautiful, but the grounds surrounding it enhance its beauty. It is framed on either side by matching buildings. To the left it is a mosque (pictured below) and to the right was the main guest house.

By mid-morning we had finished our tour and came back to do home schooling. We did this from the roof top restaurant that has a great view of the Taj Mahal, and also of the surrounding chaos of city life in Agra. You see clothes drying, monkeys climbing, rickshaws rattling down the road, cows being herded, bicycles rushing by, old men drinking chai, and general business that is Agra.

After lunch and our lessons we headed off to Agra Fort. About 75% of the fort is being used by the army and is closed to tourists, but the more interesting 25% is a combination of palaces, gardens, courts, and mosques. We hired a guide to take us through and we learned of the 5000 women in the king’s harem, the confines where the king was kept when he was arrested by his son who did not want to spend money on a black Taj Mahal as his father wished. We saw a court yard that was now a large grassed-in area, but before it had been filled in, it had been the fishing pond of the king and queen. We learned that there had not been doors, but the entry ways had once been covered with heavy silk curtains and tapestries. The weather has been warm, but not too hot, so it was perfect for strolling through the large fort.

Imagine the fort surrounded by a wet moat that was filled with crocodiles, and a dry moat that was filled with lions and tigers and an interior that had rose water fountains that were kept going by eight servants that pumped the water by hand until they were shifted off by eight more. This enabled the king to smell the rose water all day. What decadence!

CM