The Taj Mahal!

This post was delayed this morning when our hotel had a minor fire which made it necessary for us to leave sooner than predicted. But let's start with the news from yesterday. 

Yesterday we left the hotel at 6 AM to trek to the Taj... It was a five hour drive through five hundred layers of fog (or smog).. It's amazing the driver was even able to make it though because it was practically impossible to see the stripes on the road. We had a new bus for the day, one of the classic 50-person tourist kind. (It actually has TOURIST emblazoned in large letters across the front windshield. Not kidding.)

When we arrived in Agra, we saw so many Westerners. It was crazy. There were TOURISTS everywhere and street peddlers everywhere and street dancers everywhere. It was so much more chaotic than Dehli... the whole city of Agra is a UNESCO World Heritage City.

The Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his wife... Men today should learn from this. Flowers and chocolates? This man built a wonder of the world. He had planned to build a black version directly behind it, but his son arrested and imprisoned him, and construction stopped. His prison was the Agra Fort, a site we visited after the Taj. Using a mirror in his prison cell, he could still look out and see it. Both of them are buried inside.

The Taj was built in white Indian marble and inlaid with precious stones. The surface feels really smooth even over the different stones. Begun in 1632, the mausoleum took 20,000 laborers 22 years to finish. Most of the artisans were from Iran. The West has been looking for something to do about Iran... finishing the other half of the Taj Mahal might not be a bad idea for them.

On one side there is a guest house, on the other a mosque. They look identical. The building is perfectly symmetrical and looks the same from all four sides.

My mom told me all she wanted from India was a picture of me in front of the Taj, like Princess Diana's. So here is my shot...

At Agra Fort, I saw a monkey steal an orange soda drink from a little boy (who then began to wail). The fort was cool because 75% of it is still reserved for use by the Indian Army. At closing time, soldiers shooed us out using whistles. It held huge significance for the country... it's where the British finally defeated the Indians. It's where the 1857 Revolt, the first gasp for independence happened.  

The Agra Fort was built by another Mughal Emperor, the father of the builder of the Taj. We have seen lots of examples of Mughal civilization for the past several days, and I mistake it for "muggle" from Harry Potter.