Agra-Cadabra; If Katmandu, we can too!: Thursday, January 14, Day 7 (actually 5)

Day Seven (five) - The Biggy (Dave's voice)

The biggy. We get to the Taj Mahal (Taj = crown) before the rush/crush, but also before the morning fog lifts. In fact, it doesn't lift at any point during our stay, though, by mid-afternoon, it's thinned out some. Agra has a smog problem, too. This being so, we didn't get the sun-dazzled Taj you've seen, but pretty good anyway. The back story is that Shah Jahan, the Moghul (i.e., Mongol/Moslem) emperor so loved his main wife, Mumtaz that, when she died in childbirth (in 1631; child #17), he began the white marble Taj, a work that lasted 22 years. He also planned a twin monument of black marble, an idea that prompted his eldest evil son to usurp the throne and put the by-now old man under house arrest for the last eight years of his life. Shah Jahan dies in a prison tower (though attended by his daughters and pretty cushy as prisons go) that had a terrace from which he could see his wife's burial tomb.

So, white marble. The entire monument is symmetrical and includes entrance portals on all four sides. Within the portals are grounds, though one side - the one in the photos - has a pool and gardens. The only other thing about the main structure that isn't symmetrical is the tomb area, where the shah's coffin was added off to one side of his wife's. The tomb sits on a platform of white/whitish marble with minarets (only one functional) at the corners. The exterior of the tomb building itself is made of carved white marble, many parts of which are inset with lapis, lazuli, jasper, carnelian, and a green stone (can't remember the name) in intricate floral and bird designs. There are carved marble tracery screens inside and tracery windows to admit light, even on semi-gloomy days. The "white" exterior has been darkened by pollution since the advent of internal combustion engines and scaffolding was up around one of the minarets as part of a continuing program of cleaning using river mud and coconut fibers. The marble isn't porous, we're told, so the cleaning work, though perpetual, isn't hopeless and, even on a foggy/smoggy day, the Taj looks only off-white.

The central burial chamber is fairly compact and decorated with more tracery screens and carved jeweled marble around the coffin. Around the central chamber are corner rooms linked by walkways. These are less fully decorated and may be there only so that the building has some size to it. Based on our time inside, the famous onion dome is on top of - and not linked in any way that we could see - with the burial chamber, which is less than 20 feet high. Having seen The Taj in photographs so many times, the impact is a little diluted. Walking by and looking at it, we kind of feel like we know about it already. Still, pretty good and, one overhears, that it's the number one ranked "sight" in the world. (Not sure folks who have seen Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, or Scarlet Johansson at 19 would agree.)

As might be imagined, it took an army of artisans and builders to erect The Taj. The workers were housed nearby and, after the project was completed, many artisans stayed on to do repairs and upkeep. Descendants of these still practice various decorative crafts in the vicinity. It somehow meant that we needed to visit a marble decorating showroom for complimentary chai (Indian tea) and a sales pitch for gorgeous marble table tops. Expensive, but not so bad, when one considers the volume of hand labor involved. Still, who needs a marble-topped end table, lazy Susan, etc.? It was close, but the answer was: not us.

From there to the "Baby Taj," the tomb monument of Mumtaz' uncle or grandfather or someone like that. It was built first and is smaller, but it's the same general design as The Mama Taj, except without the onion dome or the minarets. Nice, but after you've seen Michael Jackson perform, who needs Tito?

From there to Agra Fort, another fort over a city and the place where Shah Jahan's deluxe prison cell was. Much of the stone work was reddish and, as could be expected, the part open to the public really wasn't the fort. Instead, it was the far more spacious and nicely decorated area where the bigwigs hung out. Again, things looks a little gaunt without the furnishings and, because of the smog, no hilltop view of The Taj across the River Yamuna. Another Tito sight.

Entertainment tonight was advertised as a "Bollywood-type" dance show with dinner. Sorta. The dancer was energetic and the costume was colorful, though one always wonders why a woman that pregnant is still working. She also, after showing what she could do, began dragging elderly tourists on to the dance floor. Being a pickle-puss, Dave sees no reason why watching old people try to dance is entertaining. Would you be happy if, at the NBA game you'd paid to see, people from the stands were selected to play the second half?

Anyway, the Bollywood dancer was fine, the food was tasty and plentiful, and afterwards a guy drew henna tattoos on those who wanted them. There were fireworks (briefly), too. All told, more of a day than we wanted, and a few of the group fell asleep before we left the restaurant. Good for them.

Ok, now for a fee pictures. Only a sample. The Taj is a photographer's paradise although one can't take pictures on the inside which is spectacular also. When one shines a light on the stones, they are beyond belief. Anyway, you can read all about the Taj here. Although it was a foggy day, the mist, in my opinion, gave the Taj a more surreal and magical feel.

Agra Fort and Baby Taj, as Dave says, aren't the Taj, but if you hadn't seen the Biggy, these would be amazing by themselves. (Note: please excuse the formatting issues after the Taj pictures and repeated narrative of two deleted captions. Blogsy being persnickety or the user not understanding its nuances).

First a few of the biggy.