Agra Fort and Taj Mahal
Trip Start
Mar 17, 2009
1
22
46
Trip End
Jul 04, 2009
Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Friday, April 10, 2009
When we arrived, and throughout the whole time at the Taj, we could hardly believe we were actually there. We had only seen pictures, and could hardly believe we were seeing it with our own eyes
Queen Jhodaabai's Palace
.The Taj Mahal is a tomb built by Emperor Shah Jehan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj was built to the Emperor's vision of heaven, and so has beautiful gardens, several fountains, and the building itself, which made entirely of white marble. It is also entirely symmetrical. There is only one thing that is not symmetrical in the entire Taj complex. That is Shah Jehan's tomb. The Taj Mahal was built for his wife, and he was not expecting to be buried in it until right before his death. His son, who was his youngest, and knew he would never get to rule, decided he wanted the throne, at whatever cost. After killing all his brothers, he traveled upstream and blocked the river that runs in front of and feeds the fort with water. Only if his father agreed to his demands would he unblock the river. Shah Jehan agreed to his son's demands, and after ceding the kingdom to him, was placed uder house arrest. When he was dying, his last wish, to his daughter, was to be buried at the Taj Mahal. She carried his wish out t the letter. She carried his body down the river, by boat, and took him to the Taj Mahal. There he rests.
For Janpal's birthday, which was today, he wanted to see the Taj in the moonlight. We did, and it was really quite pretty. Apparently on full moon nights, only at midnight, and only for a minute, all the cornelian inlaid in the amazing inlay work of the Taj lights up, and the Taj shines red and gold
Mughal Rainwater Collection System
. During WWII, on a full moon night, the Taj Mahal had to be covered up with a black cloth to stop it from shining because they were afraid it would be bombed.That night, we ate at a revolving restaurant in Agra. During the day, there is a view of the Taj from the windows on the right (coming into the room).
Janpal: It felt so surreal to be at the Taj. I felt like in all those famous pictures, in all those books I had seen the Taj Mahal, but I almost couldn't believe I was actually there. I can really see why it is one of the wonders of the world. It was extremely beautiful, but some of the things that might have proven to be interesting were blocked off. Such as, the real tomb of Shah Jehan and Mumtaz. She gave birth to 14 children and actually died away from Agra, when she was accompanying the Emperor on a diplomatic mission, while she was pregnant. Her body was moved two times before she finally was laid to rest at the Taj. It took 22 years for the Taj to be built. Emperor Shah Jehan liked the white marble of India and made the Taj Mahal entirely of it. The semi precious stones inlaid actually have their shape carved out of the marble and then the stones are shaped to match it exactly and then inlaid into it. When the British came into India, they stole most all of the precious stones and the gold dome toppers. They eventually replaced the dome toppers with bronze toppers, and later, in the 1980's, the Archeological Survey of India replaces them with bronze replicas of the gold toppers. When India had their war with China in 1971, the Taj was covered with a big black sheet to protect it as during the full moon, it would glow and make a great target. They did not want this world wonder to be destroyed by the petty foolishness of the human race.
Agra Fort did not strike me as beautiful as other monuments we've seen
Agra Fort
. I think it just might be the red sandstone, which I don't like as much. There were three balconies, each on one section of the Fort where the first balcony Emperor Akbar sat, the second balcony sat Jehangir and the third balcony sat Shah Jehan. Shah Jehan especially liked this balcony because from here, he could see the Taj Mahal. His youngest son, Aurangzeb, knew he would never take the throne and so killed his brothers and then put his father, Shah Jehan under house arrest. Shah Jehan stayed in the Fort for the rest of the nine years of his life. When he died, he died in his daughter's lap (who had promised her mother to always take care of him) she then took his body to the Taj where he was buried in a non symmetrical place to remind himself that this was Mumtaz Mahal's. Emperor Akbar built the Fort after he moved the capital from Delhi to Agra.Mommy: It was surreal to be there.
