Taj Mahal Visit!

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We arrived at the Taj Mahal around 4:00pm, so we had basically until sunset to walk around. It was a gorgeous time of day to be there. The sky was very blue with interesting clouds at first, and that sky gave way to a pretty sunset with pinks and rich sunlight reflecting on the white and red buildings.

Even though there were tons of people there, that somehow didn’t take away from the experience. The setting is so vast that the people are just a part of it. And in fact, the various colors on the saris and other clothes people wore were a pretty addition to the scenery.

Upon leaving, we could hear people calling/singing prayers at dusk. It was a cool way to walk out of the Taj Mahal - added to the memory of the day.

On the way in, there was a row of vendors trying to sell you anything, everything. There are the little kiosks, but then there are the hustlers - the young boys that come up to you working it to make a sale. Lots of them. One kid Johnny (they all give you their name) really wanted me to buy his postcard book, but I kept saying “no, no.” Johnny says “OK, you’ll come back later.” This was apparently a common line as I heard it more than once. But then when leaving, I hear “Ma’am! Ma’am!” (Yeah, that makes me feel old) “You remember me? I’m Johnny. I work for you long time. Want to buy postcards?” Hahahaha! Yeah, Johnny. You’ve worked for me long time. Since we “met” 3 hours ago. I almost bought the stupid postcards just because I loved his lines. Almost.

Major facts remembered:
-Took 22 years to build complex (17 for main mausoleum, 5 for surrounding buildings/grounds)
-A king built it to honor his favorite (3rd) wife after she died and bore him 14ish children of which only a handful survived
-Completed around 1653
-They don’t have to clean the mausoleum because it is made with a hard marble infused with some sparkly rock. So the marble isn’t porous. And it literally sparkles in the sunlight. Because the marble isn’t porous, the rainy season takes care of any cleaning necessary. Since the 1650s. How cool is that?
-The architects made it so the minaret towers lean outward at a 3 degree angle so that if there was an earthquake, they would not harm the mausoleum, but rather fall away from it.
-Lapis lazuli, coral, jade, and many others make up the color flowers on the intricate details. Flowers include lotus, lilies, chrysanthemums, honeysuckle, so pretty!
-They confiscated my chewing gum from my purse upon entering. No gum inside.
-One must either remove their shoes or wear little booties over the shoes to enter the marble main mausoleum and surrounding marble plaza.
-The tomb you see inside is not where the queen and king are actually buried. It is underground in a basement area - they had to move them due to graffiti and other disturbances from visitors.

As always, enjoy the photos.

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Comments

[Minda]

surprised?
This was great AJ - I read all the other general India blog too, thanks for sharing.