We left the Hilton at 5am on Tuesday, March 15th with a driver who we had hired for the approximately three hour drive each way. Emily napped on and off for the majority of the journey to Agra. I was only able to sleep for the first hour or so. For the next two hours, I stared out the windows as the sun rose over the towns and villages that we passed. The sunrises and sunsets in India are the most beautiful reds and oranges. I feel bad saying that they are beautiful, because I know that the vibrant colors are primarily due to the extreme pollution in the air, but they really can be breathtaking. The land of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh through which we drove was very flat and dotted with trees. Much of it was farmland occasionally interrupted by smokestacks for small factories or fields of buffaloes or goats. We passed through dozens of towns and villages along the way, each looking much like the one before. Trash, grazing animals, and small family-run convenience store/restaurant combinations lined the roads between. It was a quiet and peaceful drive; we arrived to Agra at about 8:30am.
Our first stop was the most recognized landmark in all of India – the Taj Mahal. Our driver dropped us at the ticket building and Emily and I hopped into one of the free, state-run carts that drove us to the entrance of the Taj Mahal grounds. After skillfully sidestepping and avoiding the hawkers, we entered a small gate in the walls surrounding the Taj and approached the Great Gate. As we walked towards the Great Gate, I got a small glimpse of the very top of one of the Taj’s domes and inhaled quickly and found that I was getting teary. I realized at that moment that I was about to see one of the most amazing and celebrated man-made structures in the world. I got the same feeling when I first saw the Great Wall of China outside Beijing. In each of these moments, I felt both excited and serene, significant and small. I had a sense of being part of something much bigger, historical and important in some way.
We entered through the Great Gate and got our first full glimpse of the Taj Mahal.
It looks so incredibly large and awe-inspiring from the Gate. And, then, surprisingly, once you get up close, you realize that it’s remarkably smaller than you thought. The rooms inside seem undersized for the overall scale of the Taj Mahal and its grounds, although the details are breathtaking.
For symmetry, there are two identical buildings on either side of the Taj Mahal – a mosque and a jawab. (Jawab literally means “answer” and was built to mirror the mosque.) Emily and I spent quite some time wandering around the Taj, walking through the mosque and jawab and gazing across the Yamuna River which runs behind the mausoleum.
After spending almost two hours at the Taj Mahal, Emily and I walked back to the car lot to find our driver and headed to the nearby Agra Fort. The Agra Fort is a walled city used by the Mughals in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Although less famous than the Taj Mahal, it is quite impressive in its own right. It has gorgeous views of the Taj Mahal and the Yamuna River, and the structures inside the walls of the fort are striking.
As we left, we came across a few dozen monkeys wandering the Agra Fort grounds.
Before departing Agra, we stopped at the Tomb of Akbar the Great, who died in 1605. This tomb was a predecessor to the Taj Mahal, and it has the same symmetry. The buildings are in various states of repair, as restoration work is actively underway, but the majority of the structures have been wonderfully restored to their original state.
We departed Agra and headed for home in the late afternoon, finally arriving back to the hotel around dinnertime. We wandered over to the nearby mall to find a place to eat, as we didn’t feel like spending any more time in a car to find someplace. We ate at an upscale Indian restaurant, sharing appetizers, and got a slice of chocolate cake at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf before heading to bed.
Only one day left in India …
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