Where the heck are we now?: Agra, India

Our last train trip with the group brought us to Agra, the home of the famous Taj Mahal, of course the train was late...

Still waiting!

While in India you will not miss a stop in a carpet shop, this one in Agra was a government run one that did beautiful double knotted work with each knot being tied by hand...

The work was so intricate and beautiful!

The Indian government has banned heavy industry in this area due to the potential damage to the Taj Mahal and Red Fort, both of which are UNESCO heritage sites. As a result there are many rug and textile shops all over the area. I was tempted but got out of there with my credit card intact!

We had been looking forward to seeing the Taj Mahal ever since we came to India as it is probably the most famous site that is indicative of India.

Even the gate is enormous....

Our first glimpse of this magnificant building...

Shah Jahan was a member of the Mughal dynasty that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid 18th-century. After the death of his father, King Jahangir, in 1627, Shah Jahan emerged the victor of a bitter power struggle with his brothers, and crowned himself emperor at Agra in 1628. At his side was Arjumand Banu Begum, better known as Mumtaz Mahal (“Chosen One of the Palace”), whom he married in 1612 and cherished as the favorite of his three queens.

In 1631, Mumtaz Mahal died after giving birth to the couple’s 14th child. The grieving Shah Jahan, known for commissioning a number of impressive structures throughout his reign, ordered the building of a magnificent mausoleum across the Yamuna River from his own royal palace at Agra. Construction began around 1632 and would continue for the next two decades. The chief architect was probably Ustad Ahmad Lahouri, an Indian of Persian descent who would later be credited with designing the Red Fort at Delhi. In all, more than 20,000 workers from India, Persia, Europe and the Ottoman Empire, along with some 1,000 elephants, were brought in to build the mausoleum complex.

The Taj Mahal is the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage.

Once inside the gate you see the full grandeur of the structure...

It is surrounded by gardens and reflecting pools...

And lots of people, mostly Indian tourists...

This well dressed family were keen to have their photo taken with us...

The Taj Mahal is a perfect symmetrical planned building, with an emphasis of bilateral symmetry along a central axis on which the main features are placed. The building material used is brick-in-lime mortar veneered with red sandstone and marble and inlay work of precious/semi precious stones.

Some of the detail....

The calligraphy of the Taj Mahal mainly consists of the verses and passages from the holy book of Quran. It was done by inlaying jasper in the white marble panels. These passages were inscribed by Amanat Khan in an illegible Thuluth script.

In Keeping with the symmetry of the tomb he also built two identical buildings on each side, one is an empty building and the other is a mosque...

It is a beautiful building as well...

We walked all around the tomb which is massive, a side view...

To enter the top platform and visit the interior shoe covers needed to be worn and there were long lines to get inside...

Inside the Taj Mahal, the cenotaphs honoring Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan are enclosed in an eight-sided chamber ornamented with pietra dura (an inlay with semi-precious stones) and a marble lattice screen. But the gorgeous monuments are just for show: The real sarcophagi are in a quiet room below, at garden level.

There are no pictures allowed inside so I found this one on the internet. It shows both of the tombs with one being larger than the other and not in perfect symmetry like the rest of the structure. The marble was quite beautiful.

All many inlays inside such as this one...

With so many people and such a hot day there were lots of places to get some shade...

Our picture taken by a local...

Outside the gates were men offering to take our picture for 100 rupees which we declined, but then as we were trying to fiqure out where to get the best shot this man quietly comes over, takes the camera and moves us to this spot. He takes a number of pictures, but asks for no money though we know that what he is expecting. So here are our 100 rupee shots...they got us anyway!

I expected the building to be totally white but it is made of different colours of marble that seem to glow in the sunlight...

A view back towards the gate...

One last view on the way out...

Another famous building in Agra is the Red Fort of Agra.... It was the main residence of the emperors of the Mugal Dynasty till 1638, when the capital was shifted from Agra to Delhi.

It is a massive complex with 70 feet high walls surrounded by two moats. Bricks formed the base of Agra Fort’s structure. Red sandstone was brought all the way from Rajasthan and that was laid on the external surfaces. Back then, the entire fort was built using the red sandstone.

We went early in the morning before it was too hot and the early morning sun was beautiful against the walls....

Approaching one of the four gates to the complex...

Here is another one...

The Fort is located across the river from the Taj Mahal which was almost visible in the morning smog!

The fort has huge courtyards...

But what impressed me the most was the detailed work everywhere we looked...

In all types of material...

This appearance of the fort underwent a major change during the reign of Shah Jahan who built the nearby Taj Mahal. Unlike his grandfather, Shah Jahan was smitten by the beauty of white marble. Hence, he destroyed many structures within the fort, only to rebuild them using white marble.

He built identical small palaces for two of his daughters, one for his favourite daughter and the other for his not so favourite daughter. One was built from solid marble and the other painted to look like marble.

Shah Jahan was made to spend his final days in the Musamman Burj of the Agra fort, which was built by him. He was imprisoned there by his grandson who overthrew him. It is a beautiful octagonal tower with an open pavilion. It is said that Shah Jahan used to view the Taj Mahal from this very place.