We had arranged to travel out to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal (Crown Palace) and the Agra Fort (the King's residence) with some of Marisa's friends. We travelled by a small mini-van 4-5 hours out of Delhi and stayed overnight. To make the most of the trip, we booked to see the Taj Mahal in moonlight as well as during the day. We were lucky to have been there during the full moon (and superman, and blue moon - or red moon - i'm confused). The Taj seemed a little underwhelming at night. It was hard to see it in detail from the viewing platform, and certainly impossible to take a good photo, unless you are an experienced photographer like our travelling companion - Jason - who took this specky pic:
This was my attempt:
50 people at a time get to enter the gates to the viewing platform, so it was a real treat to see the Taj without having to fight the crowds.
The Taj during the day though was a totally moving experience. The sheer opulence was stunning, architectural geometry breathtaking and the love story behind this structure overwhelming. The building is made from white marble, with semi-precious stones forming the decorative patterns. Yep - every bit of colour is actual stones cut to shape and inlaid into the marble, and there are literally hundreds of thousands like the below.
Each facade has a chapter of the koran written on the wall, a total of 15 out of 30 chapters. The other 15 were meant to be written on the second Taj Mahal, to be made of black marble and situated across the river and joined by a half white /half black marble bridge. Diamonds were meant to be used for writing of Koran chapters. It was meant to be a resting place for the king after his death. It never eventuated however, because the black Taj was going to cost 4 x as much as much as the white Taj (which was already bloody expensive) and the King was locked up in jail for wanting to spend all that money. But, before you get all teary about the poor King spending his days behind grotty Indian jail, fear not, as this was his actual jail cell:
The walls were also decorated with gem stones. The jail was located at the site of the King's Palace - which is now known as Agra Fort.
Back to the Taj Mahal love story. The king had 4 wives. Only the second wife (his favourite) bore him children (14 of them). Unfortunately, she died in labour with the last one. Before she died, she requested her husband to:
- look after the children
- never marry again
- to build her a lavish tomb
So, the king spent the next 22 years building the Taj Mahal. It is surrounded by 4 gates (originally named after the other wives, but now called the South Gate, North Gate, West Gate and East Gate for the ease of English speaking fools), each was dedicated to his 4 wives.
The Taj Mahal is symmetrical and identical from all sides. The gates and archways align perfectly:
It really is spectacular. In the centre is the tomb of his second wife and to the side of that is his own tomb (given he never got his desired resting place in the second Taj made in black)
The Agra Fort was pretty cool, too. It was the living quarters of the King and his family. It is a shame that the building was not protected or restored and now it's really a ruin (the Indians could have learnt a thing or two from the French in this regard, because the Fort could have competed with Versailles for top spot has it been taken care of over the years.) It probably didn't help that the British took anything valuable like paintings, and gold spires.
The bus trip back to Delhi was entertaining...with Kingfisher Extra Strong (local beer) on hand and some great company, the 6 hour drive back passed in a blink of an eye:
No comments:
Post a Comment