Taj Mahal

Terry's shot with zoom lens

The Taj Mahal is an impressive structure in Agra, India, made of white marble. The emperor Shah Jahan built it in the seventeenth century to commemorate his favourite wife, who died in childbirth with their fourteenth child.   The cost to build was millions of dollars in today's currency.  When you take a closer look, you can see thousands of inlaid pieces of rock and semi-precious stones.

This Arabic writing is not painted on, but inlaid with black marble.










A close-up of some ornamentation in semi precious stones. 28 different types of stones were used in the whole structure!

The design of the building is Persian with Hindu elements.











 Terry was a amazed that there was nothing in this huge mausoleum except the tombs of the shah and his wife.  Even they were not visible, but buried under the ground within the building.  What we saw as we walked around inside, with fabric covers over our shoes, were replica tombs.

Formal gardens surrounded the Taj.  We spent most of our time posing for pictures by a professional photographer, and each have a whole album full.  If I had known this was going to happen, I would have been more dressed up for the occasion.  Instead, I had worn clothes for a "field trip" to be as comfortable as possible in the 32 degree heat.

one of the posed shots

We also explored the outside of a mosque made of red sandstone built on the same grounds

Why is the star of David on this archway?  I wondered.  I found out that the symbol had only been used by Jews for the last 200 years.  It was used by Islam and Hinduism much earlier.

The next day our bus took us to the red sandstone Agra Fort a couple of kilometres away, across the river. The fort was the main residence of the emperors until 1638.

Wonderful to have the chance to see these famous sites, but the heat made me less than totally enthusiastic.










This is how the Taj appeared through the smog from that vantage point.

Our group