Taj Mahal

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The Taj Mahal, what can we say but breathtakingly amazing. The most incredible monument to one woman with 20 000 workers from around the globe working over 20 years (beggining in 1631 and completed 1653) you can imagine every detail is perfect. It is flawless, perfectly balanced, amazing.
We arrived relatively early to miss the crowds and watched the Taj appear from the morning mist and smoke from the fires last night. You are not allowed to take anything but water and camera into the grounds so it is perfectly clean, though a bit noisy. The gate house is spectacular and then is followed by a series of beautiful gardens and marble waterfalls leading up to the the Taj. On each side is a Masjid and a rest house identically balanced and with equal attention to detail in their carved sandstone and inlaid semi-precious stones. The Taj itself is elevated on a raised marble platform and you must wear covers over your shoes. Photography inside the mausoleum is banned (not that that stops everyone) but it is an amazing feeling to enter this incredibly beautiful and massive place built in memory of Emperor Shah Jahan's wife who is there in one tiny marble coffin (actually the real coffin is hidden underneath) right in the centre, with her husband (a late addition) in a larger coffin to one side. Because of the number of people and the shape of the room and adjoining arched hallways the thousands of voices begin to sound like the wind or the ocean. We wonder how she feels in her resting place with so much sound.

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Photos

View of the Taj in the moonlight
This one is for you John! Although we selected on eof the closest possibloe hotels with an excellent daytime view of the Taj Mahal, the fires and fog comletely obscured any view other than a faint outline of the gate house...Apparently the inlaid stones and semi-transparent marble all change colour as the moon touches them, but I guess you have to be right next to it to see.