Before leaving for India, I decided that the Taj Mahal was the one thing I wanted to make sure I saw on this trip. It was never really high up on my list of things, maybe because I didn't really think I'd be coming to India anytime soon. But after going to Victoria Falls last year in Zambia and thinking about the 7 Wonders of the World, I thought...why not try to see all of them? Well, Vic Falls is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. The Taj Mahal is one of the 7 New Wonders of the World. Can anyone even remember all of the Original 7 Wonders? I would have loved to see the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but I think they are gone now. I missed out on going to Chichen Itza when they closed the port in Cancun on me during the hurricane, but I still hope to make it someday. Machu Picchu is still high on my list, and so are the Pyramids! There are so many new lists, that it's hard to keep track. I'm not going to mess with all the semantics of this one, but let's just call the Taj Mahal a Wonder just for the heck of it.
This past weekend, David and I made a trek to go see the Taj Mahal. Of course, it couldn't be just around the corner near Mumbai. It had to be way the heck up in the Northern part of India. After working until 4AM on Friday night/Saturday morning, I took a 2 hour nap and then boarded a 2-hr flight to New Delhi. I was originally planning to take a train over from Delhi to Agra where the Taj is located, but since David was coming and also Ratnaker (of the the Indian guys we were originally training in Cali but then got sent back), we opted to get a car/driver and do the trek ourselves. "Rocky" organized the car and driver and met us at the airport in New Delhi.
I then found out that...it was going to be a 5-6 hour drive!! Okay, I should have known beforehand, but after working the graveyard shift these past days, my keen observations have been slipping. The next 5 hours was an adventure (a loud one involving constant honking, near misses, and over-loaded vehicles), and I was happy to be able to see other parts of India. A car ride in India is definitely something to write home about! But let's move on to what most people want to see...the Taj Mahal!! This is our first view of the Taj from a distance.
We stayed the night at the Trident hotel and woke up at 4:15AM to make it in time for sunrise. Of course, our friend Rocky forgets to wake up (he's at a different hotel, has lost his phone so we can't contact him, and he's the only one who can get a hold of the driver), so we are sitting in the lobby at 5AM waiting...and waiting...and waiting. David is realizing the severity of the situation. The wrath of Robin will soon be unleashed if she misses her only attempt for sunrise at the Taj (the 1 thing I wanted to do in India). But no worries...after about a 1/2 hour of waiting, I spot a person in the lobby, and politely asked..."Hey...are you going to the Taj?" Somehow I convince this Dutchman to let us join him and his guide and they give us a ride. (The sun is not going to wait for us!) David is soooo thankful to the guy for saving him (saving him from having to deal with Robin being pissed off...hahaha) that he buys the guy his ticket. Anyhow, we make it to the Taj just in time for sunrise. Perfect time to see it!! Check out the pics...
Here's the North gate to the Taj Mahal where we entered. Pretty impressive. When you look through the door while you are walking through, the Taj Mahal looks like it is close by. But once you step through, you realize that it's still pretty far away.
This is what Dave calls the Money shot! Check out the reflection of the Taj in the water. Notice the symmetry. Yes, I am that good with a camera. lol
Unfortunately, David is not the best at lining up my Taj shot, so I enlist the Dutchman to take my photo. I think he did a good job. It really looks like I have a mini Taj dangling from my fingers!
We then make our way to the Diana seat for the famous shots in front of the lotus pool. I find out later that this isn't really the correct Diana pose...
.
..but Dave does a pretty good King pose! lol
A little history now. The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in honor of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631. She was his 3rd wife and died during childbirth of their 14th child. According to the guide, she asked for 3 things: 1. Not to marry again 2. To take care of the kids 3. To build her an awesome shrine/temple! That's not asking for too much, is it??
The tomb took 22 years to complete it (according to our guide...as it is different depending on who you ask) with a workforce of over 20,000 people. It cost over 40 million rupees to make it - about 10% of their GDP for 20 years (Hetzel did the math…lol). Craftsmen from as far as Turkey came to join in the work. The marble was quarried at Makrana in Rajasthan. Precious stones were imported from distant lands. A two mile ramp was built to lift material up to the level of the dome. 
Flowers such as the lily, poppy, iris, tulip, and the narcissus were depicted in sprays or patterns. Minute slivers of precious and semi-precious stones such as carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and malachite, were set into a marble base. The Florentine technique of the Pietra Dura was used to translate naturalistic forms into decorative patterns.
There is a lot of carved relief work on the Taj Mahal. Decorative panels of flowering plants, foliage, and vases are carved on the lower portions of the walls to add color to the pristine white marble, highlighting the texture of the polished marble and sandstone surface.
The 144 foot dome is capped with a finial. Underneath it is a coconut, the crescent moon on its side, an onion, and some other things I forget!
It's pretty ornate inside the actual mauseleum, but not as big as I would have imagined. Here you can see a replica of the burial place of Shah Jahan and his wife. The actual graves are in a dark crypt below. Supposedly they did this so if people came and bombed the place, the actual tombs themselves would not be destroyed. Mumtaz Mahal's cenotaph, raised on a platform, is placed next to Shah Jahan's. This is one place where there is no symmetry.
The filigree screens are daintily carved from single blocks of marble. They are meant to veil the area around the royal tombs.
Like I mentioned before, the white marble is translucent. But the carnelion stone is also translucent. Check it out when you shine light on it!
It is alleged that on the completion of the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan ordered the right hand of the chief mason to be cut off so that the masterpiece could never be recreated. Some say all the workers had their right hands cut off. There are numerous other legends are associated with the Taj Mahal.
According to one story, Shah Jahan desired to have another Taj built across the river Yamuna, this one entirely in black marble and was to act as his own mausoleum. He wanted to connect the two Taj Mahal white and black with a beautifully decorated black and white checkered bridge. Unfortunately, he couldn't complete it due to the war of succession with his son and spent the last 8 years of his life under imprisonment. The base was completed, but his son stopped the building of it. He was buried instead next to his wife. It would have been a mirror image of the Taj Mahal, but in black. "The Black Taj Mahal existed as a soul without a body."
Here we are relaxing on the Taj with the view of the North Gate behind us. When walking around on the Taj, we either had to be barefoot or wear shoe covers.
Before heading back to New Delhi for our flight, we took a side trip to see how the construction was done for the marble and stones of the Taj. These guys are giving a live demonstration. Of course, I got sucked in and bought myself a small table made out of this marble with translucent stones. :-)
This past weekend, David and I made a trek to go see the Taj Mahal. Of course, it couldn't be just around the corner near Mumbai. It had to be way the heck up in the Northern part of India. After working until 4AM on Friday night/Saturday morning, I took a 2 hour nap and then boarded a 2-hr flight to New Delhi. I was originally planning to take a train over from Delhi to Agra where the Taj is located, but since David was coming and also Ratnaker (of the the Indian guys we were originally training in Cali but then got sent back), we opted to get a car/driver and do the trek ourselves. "Rocky" organized the car and driver and met us at the airport in New Delhi.
I then found out that...it was going to be a 5-6 hour drive!! Okay, I should have known beforehand, but after working the graveyard shift these past days, my keen observations have been slipping. The next 5 hours was an adventure (a loud one involving constant honking, near misses, and over-loaded vehicles), and I was happy to be able to see other parts of India. A car ride in India is definitely something to write home about! But let's move on to what most people want to see...the Taj Mahal!! This is our first view of the Taj from a distance.We stayed the night at the Trident hotel and woke up at 4:15AM to make it in time for sunrise. Of course, our friend Rocky forgets to wake up (he's at a different hotel, has lost his phone so we can't contact him, and he's the only one who can get a hold of the driver), so we are sitting in the lobby at 5AM waiting...and waiting...and waiting. David is realizing the severity of the situation. The wrath of Robin will soon be unleashed if she misses her only attempt for sunrise at the Taj (the 1 thing I wanted to do in India). But no worries...after about a 1/2 hour of waiting, I spot a person in the lobby, and politely asked..."Hey...are you going to the Taj?" Somehow I convince this Dutchman to let us join him and his guide and they give us a ride. (The sun is not going to wait for us!) David is soooo thankful to the guy for saving him (saving him from having to deal with Robin being pissed off...hahaha) that he buys the guy his ticket. Anyhow, we make it to the Taj just in time for sunrise. Perfect time to see it!! Check out the pics...
Here's the North gate to the Taj Mahal where we entered. Pretty impressive. When you look through the door while you are walking through, the Taj Mahal looks like it is close by. But once you step through, you realize that it's still pretty far away.
This is what Dave calls the Money shot! Check out the reflection of the Taj in the water. Notice the symmetry. Yes, I am that good with a camera. lol Unfortunately, David is not the best at lining up my Taj shot, so I enlist the Dutchman to take my photo. I think he did a good job. It really looks like I have a mini Taj dangling from my fingers!
We then make our way to the Diana seat for the famous shots in front of the lotus pool. I find out later that this isn't really the correct Diana pose...
...but Dave does a pretty good King pose! lol
A little history now. The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in honor of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631. She was his 3rd wife and died during childbirth of their 14th child. According to the guide, she asked for 3 things: 1. Not to marry again 2. To take care of the kids 3. To build her an awesome shrine/temple! That's not asking for too much, is it??
The Taj Mahal is well known for its white crystalline marble of the main mausoleum. The marble is no ordinary marble. It is special in that it is non-porous and does not take in soda, etc. when spilled on it. It is translucent and assumes subtle variations of light, tint and tone at different times of the day. At dawn it assumes a soft dreamy aspect; at noon, it appears to be a dazzling white, and in the moonlight the dome looks like a huge iridescent pearl.
The tomb took 22 years to complete it (according to our guide...as it is different depending on who you ask) with a workforce of over 20,000 people. It cost over 40 million rupees to make it - about 10% of their GDP for 20 years (Hetzel did the math…lol). Craftsmen from as far as Turkey came to join in the work. The marble was quarried at Makrana in Rajasthan. Precious stones were imported from distant lands. A two mile ramp was built to lift material up to the level of the dome. 
With 4 minarets, each 131 feet high, there is perfect symmetry at the Taj Mahal. However, the minarets are actually 2 degrees off away from the Taj, so as to fall away from the Taj if they ever did fall.
Flowers such as the lily, poppy, iris, tulip, and the narcissus were depicted in sprays or patterns. Minute slivers of precious and semi-precious stones such as carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and malachite, were set into a marble base. The Florentine technique of the Pietra Dura was used to translate naturalistic forms into decorative patterns. 
There is a lot of carved relief work on the Taj Mahal. Decorative panels of flowering plants, foliage, and vases are carved on the lower portions of the walls to add color to the pristine white marble, highlighting the texture of the polished marble and sandstone surface.
The 144 foot dome is capped with a finial. Underneath it is a coconut, the crescent moon on its side, an onion, and some other things I forget!
The filigree screens are daintily carved from single blocks of marble. They are meant to veil the area around the royal tombs.
Like I mentioned before, the white marble is translucent. But the carnelion stone is also translucent. Check it out when you shine light on it!
It is alleged that on the completion of the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan ordered the right hand of the chief mason to be cut off so that the masterpiece could never be recreated. Some say all the workers had their right hands cut off. There are numerous other legends are associated with the Taj Mahal.
According to one story, Shah Jahan desired to have another Taj built across the river Yamuna, this one entirely in black marble and was to act as his own mausoleum. He wanted to connect the two Taj Mahal white and black with a beautifully decorated black and white checkered bridge. Unfortunately, he couldn't complete it due to the war of succession with his son and spent the last 8 years of his life under imprisonment. The base was completed, but his son stopped the building of it. He was buried instead next to his wife. It would have been a mirror image of the Taj Mahal, but in black. "The Black Taj Mahal existed as a soul without a body."
Before heading back to New Delhi for our flight, we took a side trip to see how the construction was done for the marble and stones of the Taj. These guys are giving a live demonstration. Of course, I got sucked in and bought myself a small table made out of this marble with translucent stones. :-)
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