Agra

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Hello everyone,

Agra is called the city of monuments, including the famous Taj Mahal. The first monument we visited is Akbar’s Tomb, the second is called Baby Taj and was built a few years before the main attraction. It is also called the Jewellery Box. All the monuments have a few things in common: they were built by the Mughals who controlled India for three hundred years between the 1500s and 1800s. We use the term mogul to describe someone successful, and that is the Indian context as well. Each person for whom the monument was built is buried several feet beneath the monument, with their feet facing south, their head facing north and their head turned to face west toward Mecca—remember Mecca is east of North America, but west of India.

The Taj Mahal is breathtaking. It was built in between 1632 to 1649 and employed 20,000 labourers. Our guide pointed out that it is the only monument in the world built for love—others celebrate glory. It was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died delivering her fourteenth child at age thirty-nine. The structure is clad in translucent marble so it appears pink in the morning, white in full sunlight, a cream colour in the evening, and blue under a full moon. The thickness of the marble varies from three inches to three feet—all 150,000 tones of the stuff. Although you can see light through this kind of marble, it is incredibly hard and non-porous. The structure has never been washed—the monsoons do a good enough job of keeping it clean. Much of the inside is decorated with marble inlaid with semi-precious stones. Some of the pieces are the size of a finger nail clipping. The glue to hold the tiny pieces in place has held for 350 years. The formula for the glue is an absolute secret. The pictures are of the front of the structure, but all four sides are identical! It is symmetrical right down to the size of the gardens that surround it on all four sides. Also, it has four gate houses to add to the symmetry. The minarets are for looks only and to make the monument look even more impressive, not to call the faithful to prayer--the usual purpose of minarets. I wasn't prepared for the size of this structure--forty-three storeys, not metres, but storeys high. They are very picky about what you can bring into the property: no pens, pencils, gum, etc. Basically anything that could mar the surface. Along with photos, I bought a tacky souvenir from a street urchin. A key chain that is a Taj Mahal snow cone. Snow in India? Go figure.

The other big attraction is Agra Fort, also called The Red Fort. It is actually a fortified palace. Hard to break into this place—the wall is 1-1/2 miles long and 69 feet high. The outer water moat had alligators, and the inner dry moat housed lions and tigers.

All in all, a pretty cool city.

Everywhere you look you see water buffalo—even in Delhi in the middle of busy business areas. 80% of the milk in India comes from water buffalo, and they also provide meat. If a restaurant offers a beef dish, it is water buffalo and not beef. Cows are protected in India. It reflects the influence of the vegetarian Buddhists, but then the Hindus are also vegetarians. This is more of a custom than a religious thing. The water buffalo are used for something else, but you’ll have to look at the pictures. We had a free evening, so a bunch of us went to the local McDonald’s—I wanted to see if they served water buffalo burgers. No luck there, they have chicken burgers, fish burgers and veggie burgers. Here’s the good news—my chicken burger, fries and soft drink cost me $1.50. An ice cream cone sold for 20 cents!

Namaste!

Donna

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Photos

Akbar's Tomb
Even the gate house is impressive

Gazelles
A high wall protects the 123 acre property along with the gazelles and a number of monkeys. They are descendants of the originals from 350 years ago!

Taj Mahal
I wasn't prepared for the size--43 storeys high.

Entrance
Even the four matching gates leading to the structure are impressive.

Red Fort
The white buildings you see in the background are made from leftover marble from the Taj Mahal.

Water Buffalo
They are everywhere.

Not just milk and meat
Water buffalo dung and urine are used as cleaning agents, but also the dung is collected, made into six-inch patties, dried in the sun and used as fuel and as building material. They are stacked and covered in mud.

Pattie houses
This is the end result

Comments

[Rowena Berg]

Awesome!!
Hi Donna....what fantastic pictures...you are giving us a real insight into your travels. ENJOY!!! Rowena

[Candy]

Wow!
Hey Donna. It sounds like an amazing trip. I love your photos. Thanks for coying me on your blog entries.

[Gudrun klingelstein]

Akbar's Tomb
I love the intricate stone work on the face of this building. Or is it something else?