When Jeff and Dhruv told us that they’d be celebrating Jeff’s 40th birthday in India and that they’d love for us to join, we were beyond excited. We’ve always heard that India is better experienced with a local, and to top it off, Dhruv planned the entire thing! I knew nothing about Jaipur, and as you can tell from Jeff’s previous blog, the city absolutely blew us away. After Jaipur, we headed to Agra for possibly the most famous site in India (sadly, one of the few places on our agenda that I had actually heard of). Oddly, I had also heard rumors that the Taj Mahal could be a bit disappointing given how hyped up it is as one of the most beautiful buildings ever created and listed as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. After the stunning palaces and forts in Jaipur, we were curious what the Taj Mahal and other Agra sites had in store for us.
The Beauty
The Taj Mahal, meaning Crown Palace, is an ivory-white marble mausoleum built by the Mughal King Shah Jahan who reigned from 1628-1658. I loved hearing Dhruv tell the story that young Indian children learn in school. The king was so in love with his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, that he built her the most beautiful building in the entire world to honor her when she died. He had around 22,000 men and countless elephants working on this project including extremely skilled craftsmen that made the intricate marble designs. And kids…he was so in love with her…that he didn’t want another building to ever be made as beautiful…so…he cut off all of the workers’ hands….Ahhhh…isn’t that sweet?
As we entered the 42-acre complex dedicated to love, we immediately realized that the image that is shown in all the pictures doesn’t capture the beauty, scope, and impressive symmetry surrounding the mausoleum. The red sandstone main gateway looks the same from both sides and is decorated with Arabic calligraphy and motifs of entwined flowers, leaves, and vines made from semi-precious stones inlaid in the marble similar to the mausoleum.
The entry gate has 11 domes on each side to acknowledge the 22 years that it took to build this monument to love. As we walked through the magnificent gate, we couldn’t help but be completely awe-struck by the sense of grandeur. Its beauty is beyond the scope of words.
Before taking another step closer, we already knew that the gem of India lived up to the hype. The sculpted gardens and reflecting pools throughout the complex further enhance the beauty of the architecture and made for a relaxing atmosphere, surprising given the hordes of crowds that come to see the Taj Mahal every day. The special garden design made sure that the king could always see the reflection of the Taj Mahal in the pools no matter which direction he was walking.
Back to my point on symmetry, the red sandstone guest house and mosque on either side of the main structure are mirror images of each other.
The Taj Mahal even looks the same from all sides with four minarets at each corner, four small domes, and a spectacular marble dome atop the tomb. The minarets were designed with a slight five degree outward tilt. First, the lean provided a counterbalance due to the soggy ground right next to the river (a huge architectural feat for the time). Second, the outward lean provided a protective mechanism because the minarets would collapse away from the structure in the event of a natural disaster such as an earthquake.
The exquisite decorative elements and precious gemstones along with the purity of the white marble truly makes this one of the most beautiful sites in the world. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the mausoleum. The marble inlaid flowers decorating the interior were made up of 64 tiny pieces! Here is an example of the exquisite marble bas-reliefs of floral designs and marble inlaid flowers (a technique known as pietra dura) on the exterior of the building:
The exterior decorations are considered among the finest in Mughal architecture. One of the facts that blew us away was their ability in the 1600s to gather some of the most beautifully colored marble and natural ornamentation from all corners of the globe. The blue marble came from Chile, the green marble from Zimbabwe, Mother of Pearl from the Indian Ocean, Turquoise from Tibet, Pava shell from New Zealand, the Jasper (brown) from Jaipur, and Cornelian (red marble) from Arabia. Mind blown! The special, translucent white marble used to make the Taj Mahal was Makrana marble and came from Rajasthan.
Scripture from the Koran is in black onyx around the entry of the Taj Mahal and the main gateway. An optical illusion is at play here to make the letters look the same size around the entire archway. Just think about the complexity of this task, the letters had to get progressively larger toward the top in a precise way to create this illusion.
We had an awesome guide who walked us through every inch of the grounds explaining the history and architecture in great detail. He also became our creative photographer, so we had a bit of fun with his recommended poses as we toured the grounds.
Standing majestically on the banks of River Yamuna, the Taj Mahal was most certainly an impressive site to see and was indeed an architectural marvel!!
Sadly, the love story that built this incredible monument has a twist at the end. The son of the king overthrew his father and imprisoned him in the Red Fort in Agra. So, the man that had all the wealth in India and built the most beautiful building in the world was forced to admire it from the prison tower a mile or so down the river. Of course, our next stop on the tour that day was to visit the Red Fort.
The Agra Fort, or Red Fort, was built before the Taj Mahal with similar marble features and designs.
The fountains, as in the picture above, had rose petals in them to give the room a lovely scent. Mughal carpets were hung over the arches of the King’s bedroom as doors and separated it from the gardens below.
Diwan-i-Am, the Hall of Audience, was the location where the king would receive members of the general public to listen to their grievances.
Jahangir Palace inside Agra Fort was the principal residence of the women of the royal family.
We enjoyed our visit to Agra Fort and got in a few more fun photos with our energetic tour guide.
To learn a bit more about the inlaid marble technique used to create the Taj Mahal, we next stopped in at a shop that has a marble demonstration. The current workers are supposedly descendants of the original crafters of the Taj Mahal, so the skill has been passed down for generations. They showed us each step of the process: etching the translucent white marble, shaping the delicate colored marble and placing inside the etched piece, and final polishing to make a smooth surface.
The more years into the craft, the artisan can make smaller and more detailed marble pieces. We saw one piece made by a 77-year-old artisan that had such a delicate, intricate design that it strained my eyes to differentiate between all the amazing colorful pieces. I couldn’t believe it. We rarely buy souvenirs, but this demonstration blew us away. When they opened the doors to the showroom, my jaw dropped, and I wanted to buy every single item in the store.
The small tables and lamps take a skilled artisan about a month. The large tables take about a year. We settled on a beautiful candleholder with carved floral elements (and elephants) and inlaid mother of pearl and blue marble flowers. We feel like we brought a little piece of the Taj Mahal home with us.
After Agra Fort, we drove quite a ways to get to our final stop for the day, Fatehpur Sikri. Our tour guide had been pretty chill most of the day, so when he all of a sudden had us jumping out of the van, running across the road, and scrambling into some rickety old bus with a bunch of strangers, we were wondering what was going on. Turns out, there is no parking near the site, so everybody has to take shuttle busses up a dusty road to get there. I think he saw that we had “missed” the shuttle and flagged it down to let us on mid-trip. Admittedly, I was also napping in the backseat and perhaps missed this important instruction. Touring India is exhausting.
Once inside, we were pleased to find fewer tourists compared to the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, but in India, you just can’t get away from the crazy. While our guide was describing the history in one of the courtyards, a man on a level below us was sitting by a rather stagnant, green pool and yelled that he would strip down and jump in if we gave him money. What!?! Why would we do that!?!?!
Anyways, Fatehpur Sikri, meaning the City of Victory, was built during the second half of the 16th century by King Akbar. The story that the guide told us about this place that absolutely blew us away…after this incredible palace complex was built, they only stayed for two years! They hadn’t researched this desolate place well enough and turns out, the water is too salty, so they couldn’t survive without a better source of fresh water.
Inside the red sandstone complex, the king built three palaces, one for each of his favorite wives: one Muslim, one Hindu, and the other Christian. One wife had the smallest but most expensive palace with intricate carvings and precious stones embedded in the walls.
Another wife had the largest palace because she gave him his only son.
The king had his bedroom inside a building called the House of Dreams with a raised bed and rose-scented water covering the floors. The terraced courtyard in front was used for performances including one of his favorite singers, Tansen.
Other buildings in the complex included a bank, in which an astrologer sat outside to announce when the bank could be opened, and the hall of public audience and the hall of private audience.
Inside the hall of private audience stands a decorative, thick, central pillar that the king would sit atop while listening to his counsel. Supposedly, no one has ever been able to put their arms around this pillar. Jimmy was soooo close!
I’m surprised they haven’t brought in LeBron or Phelps to accomplish this great feat! I don’t remember what the meaning of accomplishing this even was, but maybe it was just a ploy by our guide to get big dudes hugging a random pillar.
The Panch Mahal was a five-story palace with 176 pillars and no walls.
Fatepur Sikri is Akbar’s masterpiece and, although it quickly became a ghost town soon after it was built, the architecture tells the tale of his life and family.
Whew! This one day was packed with amazing sites and shopping. We also ended the evening with a special kebab feast and Indian dessert buffet (we finally found Gulab Jamun!!). Our stopover in Agra was fast but totally lived up to the hype!
The Crazy
So ends the beautiful pictures from the Taj Mahal and other famous Agra sites…keep reading if you are the type that enjoy random stories with few pictures. India is crazy and sometimes impossible to capture the moments. But, here is my account of what should have been a simple airport transfer from Agra to the Jaipur airport.
Our driver came early to pick us up but had the wrong type of car permit to be able to leave the city limits, so we had to wait for the company to send a replacement. With a flight to catch, we started our journey 45 min later than planned. And then, the driver had the nerve to stop to get cash that he needed. Dhruv told him to step on it because we needed to get to the airport for a flight. Mind you, driving through Indian cities is already scary. Now, when the driver is told to rush, you are in for a wild ride.
Jeffrey and I were giggling in the backseat as the driver honked the entire way swerving around cows, puppies, auto rickshaws, schoolchildren crossing the road (we didn’t laugh at that), tractors, mopeds, and of course monkeys crossing the road. Dhruv thought it felt like a video game. The driver refused to wear his seatbelt, so we were forced to listen to the warning beep for what seemed like an eternity. We also asked the driver if he could roll up the window, but he sort of ignored us. It appeared that the AC did not work, so the only way to prevent us from overheating was to suffocate on all the fumes and dirt blowing in from the roadside. And bumps in the road were so severe that you fly out of your seat and get yanked down by the seatbelt, which really hurts when you have to pee. “Weeee” Dhruv said as we zip through a narrow pass between two semis.
The driver asked if we were okay, and Dhruv let him know that we were just really impressed with his driving skills. Not that we were laughing out of fear for our lives!
Drivers in India honk at everything. Like every 2 seconds. With that frequency, I have no idea how it could possibly be effective. Our driver even honked as he was taking an exit ramp with nobody around. The only logical reason would be that, often enough, there is a person on a bike or moped going the wrong way, so he needed to warn of his approach into the blind curve. Oh and if all that isn’t enough, we got to a section of road construction where the highway went down to single lane separated by orange barricades. Our driver swerved into traffic coming head-on to pass 3 slow-moving trucks and narrowly timed the entry back to our side through one of the gaps in the barricade. Good thing we ran out of fresh, bottled water to drink that morning because I probably would have peed my pants had I not been extremely dehydrated.
At another point, our driver passed a car on a dirt shoulder, inches from spinning out of control. At that moment, I thought maybe we should tell him arriving at the airport alive was more important than on time. But, hey, this is India. This is how it is done. At least he slowed down when he was talking or texting on the phone. Seriously!?!?! I really wanted to smack him.
Finally, when we all were getting sleepy and nodding off (was that really possible in this craziness anyway) the driver decided to turn on the radio and blare some Indian tunes. Dhruv told me that they were classics at least. I must admit it added a bit of charm to the ride, especially when I gave up on the nap and embraced the ride as an adventure in and of itself.
Nevertheless, we made it to the airport alive and on time. Our experience at Indian airports, on the other hand, is a whole other crazy story for another day. Up next, Dhruv shares how we finally got to relax on this crazy India adventure.
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