Advertisement
Published: October 27th 2008
I can hardly believe that I went to the Taj Mahal! How cool is that! I will say that no matter what neither words nor pictures truly convey how beautiful this place is. Let me start at the beginning....
Originally when I mentioned to some of the students that I was planning on going to the Taj Mahal there were quite a bit who were interested. So I went ahead and planned a trip, but a few backed out. That wasn't going to stop me from going. There was no way that I would travel this far and not go to the Taj. Hello!!!! Anyway, it worked out that the day before the trip my instructor and two other students asked if I was still going and wanted to know if they could come along. It worked out pretty well, we split the cost, the trip was planned for the others, and I had company. :D
The drive from New Delhi to Agra, which is where the Taj Mahal is, took just about 4 hours. Wow! But I will say it is worth it. We slept most of the way, which was a good thing since we would be
The outer gate of the Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal was the physical representation of feminine beauty. Because of that it was "veiled" by an outer gate so that you could not see it until you entered through the gate.doing a lot of walking. We met up with our guide once we reached Agra. He was studying the Taj Mahal for his doctorate. Pretty cool if you ask me.
So lets see how much I learned....
The Taj Mahal is not only a tomb or a monument, but it's a statement of love. The emperor, Shah Jahan, was so in love with his wife, Mumtaz Mahal that he took no other wife nor did he have any conquibine. Personally I think he was a smart man. LOL When his wife died during the birth of their 14th child, and he was so grief stricken he locked himself away for days. Upon re-emerging the emperor commissioned that a monument be built to stand as a testament of the love between the emperor and his queen.
It took 22 years to complete the Taj Mahal, thousands of workers and craftsmen laboring day and night. Everyone knows that it is made out of marble. But what I thought was so interesting is that this marble is translucent, plus it will actually change color according to the time of day or even the season. During sunrise it will have a
golden hue, in the afternoon it will be white, and in the springtime it will take on a pink glow. It's as if it has a personality of it's own. Also all of the inlay designs are made of semi-precious stones that were shaped by hand with a very simple round spinning disc. I think that's what is the most amazing thing. The attention to detail which was maintained over 22 years. Can you imagine going to work everyday and continuously doing what ever it is that you do flawlessly? Few people can, but that is what the workers did. Their end product stands the test of time.
What kept running through my mind tho was how much we can accomplish when we have endless money and no television. Yes, I know I should be thinking "how romantic" or something along that line, but that just wasn't the case.
Oh! One thing that most people forget about is that the Taj Mahal is actually surrounded by a red sandstone gate. This gate was created to hide the view of the Taj until you walk through the gate. They say the reason that this was done was because the
something interesting...
See the eleven domes at the top of the outer gate? There is a second row on the back of this structure, equaling 22 domes. These domes represent each year that it took to complete the Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal was to represent feminine beauty. Just like the women are covered so must the Taj be covered as well. Pretty interesting if you ask me.
When we finished exploring and taking pictures, we went to a very nice restaurant. Which was very refreshing after walking around in the heat.
After lunch we were off to Fatehpur Sikri. Which is the palace of Akbar who is Shan Jahan's father. Apparently Akbar had 3 wives and over 300 concubine. You would think that he would be happy but he wasn't since non of his wives or concubine born him an heir. One day he met a holy man who blessed him and shortly after being blessed his wife born him an heir. The emperor's son, Shan Jahan, was the one who commissioned the Taj Mahal. Pretty cool, huh.
It's kinda ironic that Akbar had so many wives and concubine and only had one heir, while his son Shan Jahan only had one wife who bore him 14 children.
The emperor and his family stayed in Fatehpur Sikri until the water dried up. After that they moved to Agra.
After Fatehpur Sikri we started our drive
back to New Delhi. It was a long day, but an enjoyable one.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.166s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.1432s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jen
non-member comment
Lovely
The pictures are great!! It is such an amazing monument!