Agra- Day 2

To start this post I'm going to show you the photos of our hotel, the Oberoi, and then I shall continue.  It was very opulent and palatial - just my kind of hotel!

Today the day started as normal with breakfast but this time at 9:00am we began our tour of Agra with a golf kart ride to the Taj Mahal which would lead to a number of photos from an Indian man who we later would find out wanted quite a lot of money. However, little did he know who he was dealing with - and we were wise to his game!  Anyway, when we reached the main entrance to the Taj it wasn't as busy as I expected, but security was high.  They searched our bags, we went through metal detectors and had to be patted down by security guards.  At least the boys did - the girls had to go behind a curtain.  I assume they had the same experience.

When we were approved for entry, it was interesting to see that there were four gates/entrances. They were built just so they were symmetrical as that is very important to muslim architects.  These architects actually went to further lengths for symmetry as I would find out later on.

Here's the courtyard entrance to Taj Mahal

As we were walking through the huge main entrance gates in-line with the Taj Mahal the guide expained something quite interesting, if you are centered with the middle of the gates then as you walk towards it in two step periods, one by one the towers (or monarets) that form a square around the Taj become visible and the moment all four are visible stop, take two steps to the left, now only three are visible, take two more steps and only two are visible, I found that quite interesting.

First sightings

This is looking back at the entrance gate

Us on the Princess Diana bench 

Up close with the Taj

What the Taj Mahal was built for was for the tomb of King Shah Jahan's second wife who was his favourite wife.  She made him promise that when she died he wouldn't marry anyone else and he would build her a great monument to remember her.  Eventually the Mogul King himself died and was placed beside her in the tomb.  He actually wasn't supposed to be put there originally, Rather he was making a black Taj Mahal for himself so the symmetry would continue in a beautiful way across the river.  Sadly his sons took the power off him and wouldn't let him do it.  They put him under house arrest in the Agra Fort and was unable to complete his plans. But at least he got buried beside her in the end (just a little bit closer).   Here are some close up photos of the tomb that are sure to impress you.

Cleaning the Taj Mahal - they are just using soap and water but it's about 35 degrees while they are doing it.  - and here's me doing my bit with my cleaning shoe covers that had the benefit of polishing the marble floors as we walked across them.

These decorations are actually verses of the koran

The Taj is actually inlaid with precious stones like jade and onyx and carved very carefully when you see it up close.

This is an optical illusion  - the pillar is actually an optical illusion with only 3 sides not 6 sides as it would appear.

This is the guest house to the left of the Taj Mahal (which was never used).  It was built for symmetry to the same building which was on the right side  of the Taj Mahal which was a mosque.

After this, we then drove across Agra to visit the Muslim Moghul Emperor Akbar the Great's tomb.

Following this was our trip to the Agra fort, it was quite hot and sticky but that didn't take away from what I learnt. I was told that in some parts of the fort where there was white marble instead of painting on top of it they used this type of art called inlaying which is when you cut out the drawing in marble and place it in the already cut marble so it looks like a drawing. Ta Da! I also know that the fort was attacked many times but never destroyed. And that all the times it was attacked it never lost. It used to be surrounded by a moat but now it is just concrete and that there used to be a draw bridge and that only the chains remain. Here come the Photos!

Drawbridge entrance into the red fort

First courtyard

Ladies pool which would be filled with perfumed water.

This is the room in which the king was held under house arrest by his sons

This is where the King would hear complaints about issues the people didn't like about their rulers - just like the Ombudsman

Another courtyard all symmetrical

Then it was back to the hotel for a swim, room service dinner so we could watch the opening IPL match that Corey Anderson was playing in.

Joseph Hewson