The Taj (and other cool things along the way)

They say that after you visit the Taj Mahal you can call it “The Taj” cause you’re on such first-name basis with that thing :)

We went there.

It was everything I expected: hot, a little bit unkempt, and one of the most beautiful and masterfully planned out things I have ever seen.

But before I go into pictures of that, I have to back up to the route we took to get there.

Because I can’t skip this picturesque abandoned hotel where we stopped for lunch on the way to Agra:

Or Fatehpur Sikri, an amazing fort built by the famous Akbar:See all those little black specks in the air?  Those are pigeons.  I swear there are billions of them in India.  Someone told me they are considered sacred so they feed them a lot around the sacred sights to keep them around, but that may be a wives tale.

I loved this sign as we went in:Boy they sure know how to take advantage of the foreigner.

We learned so much that I will never have time to go into here.  Suffice it to say, the story about this place goes like this:  Akbar the great Mughal back in 1556, despite his 300 wives, wasn’t lucky enough to have a son {really???}.  So he went to a famous saint who sacrificed his own son so that Akbar could have one.  Sure enough one of the wives produced a son after that.  So Akbar built this amazing place called Fatehpur Sikri in honor of the saint who helped him get his son.

You can take or leave the truth of the details of that story, but I will say this was quite the monument.

Just to think of all the man hours back then carving all this stuff out of rock.

Wow.

This was Akbar’s bed:

In the holiest section there were tons of beggars and people selling all kinds of food and trinkets.

…and it was really dirty and we had to have bare feet.But it was also pretty darn cool.

And you can’t go wrong when you have goats walking around…

I loved this sweet little thumb-sucker:

And these “screens” carved from sheets of pure marble had me in awe.The kids were so darn cute and were pretty persistent but also happy about the pens we gave them. 

Here’s a glimpse into what it was like in our van en route to the different places:

Then it was on to the city of Agra where the Taj Mahal is located.

They say it’s best to visit the Taj Mahal at sunrise, so we did.

This was our first peek:

Apparently you have to take some kind of cheesy pictures when you’re at the Taj Mahal.

This is looking back at the gateway house into the complex:

Had to put this one in:

But this one is my favorite.  It depicts so perfectly how these two felt about the excessive amounts of pictures I was taking.

I loved listening to the age-old story again: how Shah Jahan, grandson of the great Akbar, built this as a monument for his favorite wife who died in childbirth.

The workmanship is astounding.  Really.

It took 20,000 men 22 years to build.

All the inlaid stuff was incredible.  I liked how the verses from the Quran were carved so intricately around the door.

Going in:

It was so dark in there I couldn’t really take any pictures.  I wish I had a close-up of the precious stones inlaid into flowers everywhere.  Here’s one from the outside, but the outside isn’t nearly as detailed as the inside.We just had to sit there in reverence and take it all in for a little while before we left.

The next stop was Agra Fort.

It was designed by Akbar as well and was extended by his son and grandson.

Typical Indian tourists:

From Agra Fort you can see the Taj Mahal. 

This is where Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, lived the last years of his life in captivity at the hands of his own son, Aurangzeb, who killed his older two brothers to take the throne, destroyed many of the temples and tried to impose Islam on everyone in the kingdom.

The workmanship was again, so amazing.

I loved the lighting.

…and the place where the empress and royal ladies had to hide themselves away to watch what went on below.

It poured with rain as we were getting ready to leave.  The kids couldn’t have been happier about that.

Drenched from the downpour, we headed to a rug-making factory when we were done at the fort.  It was fascinating.Check out how fast these guys work:

It can take two people up to two years to make one rug.

It sure made us all gain a serious appreciation for rugs.

We also went to a stone cutting place where they do similar stone inlays like they do at the Taj Mahal.

Man, there are some talented people out there I tell you.

We packed up once again……and headed out for our next adventure: Delhi.

Labels: India, travel