Agra

Agra is where the Taj Mahal was built. It is about a 3 hour car drive from Delhi. We got a personal driver to take us there and pick up a tour guide to show us around the Taj. The ride to Agra took a little bit longer on the crowded and bumpy streets there. I saw more poverty than I expected. More people living in straw and mud huts or under those blue tarps was a shock to see. When we stopped women would bang on our windows and press their baby who had dried tear drops under their eyes to the window begging for money. Your compassion is watered down by fear of how shocking they look. If you do pay them, they swarm your car. Our driver bought something from a child and dozens came out to sell him things he finally had to yell at them and almost slam them in the car to get away. I made the mistake of taking a picture of a monkey as we waited to cross the state border (exibit A to your left). The owner was all smiles and got the daddy monkey to flip and the mommy monkey holding her baby to look towards me. The monkeys looked like little slaves that had chains around their necks. The man then wanted his money. I didn't have change for him and he started banging on our car and yelling at us. The driver finally ponied up the cash. Scary.

No cars are allowed near the Taj Mahal for a half a mile or so because they don't want the pollution to damage it. I could see this being true. People burn their trash all day and this part of India smells like a chemical fire. I was worried by the snow white skies and milky air that the Taj Mahal would blend in the background. Luckily by removing the cars around it, when we arrived at the site of the Taj the skies were baby blue. The Taj Mahal can't be seen from the street. You go up to a gate where foreigners pay like 10x as much to see the thing- almost $16. We walked in and there is just a court yard that looks like USC's campus. There is one bobbins or turrets, not shure their propper name, at the top of the gate in front of the Taj for every year it took to build it- 22. As we walk through the gate, you get your first look at the Taj mahal (picture of my first look to the left). It looks like a painting and any other picture you have seen of it. Definitely one of the top 10 things I have seen in this world. 

The Taj Mahal is not all white like it appears from far away (as seen below). It is made out of an irridescent marble that glows a different temperature depending on the time of day. There are small flowers carved into the buidling. Each petal and leaf is a precious stone. The people that built the Taj had a secret cement recipe to make sure the stones would never fall out. The secret has been passed down generation to generation. The people that work to keep the Taj Mahal as incredible as it is are the grandsons of the original workers. Talk about job security!

Here are some fun facts about the Taj Mahal's structure:

• The four pillars around the Taj are 92 degrees from the ground so they are slightly slanted away from the Taj Mahal. Just in case there was an earthquake, they did not want the pillars to fall on it
• The Taj Mahal has arabic writing on the huge doorway. To make the script look the same all around the doorway, the writing on top us much large than the writing on the bottom. 
• To go inside the Taj and up on the platform, you have to take off your shoes. They give you booties at the front to put over them. 
• Inside there is nothing but the tomb of Shah Jahal's wife. She is directly in the center, he is at the side of her. 

The history of the Taj is interesting. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan build it for his dead wife Mumtaz Mahal (pictured right). He loved her the best of all of his wives as she had been pregnant non stop for 19 years before she died. On her deathbed, she only had a few requests:

1. Love our children equally
2. Never get married again (this meant he could keep his other wives he already had)
3. Build something that represents my beauty

Our tour guide mentioned that this is so special because a 

boyfriend would build the Taj Mahal for his girl, but a husband would never show this kind of romantic gesture for his wife. He tried to build a black Taj Mahal for himself out of a rare stone that is only in Agra that is puprle and black and when the sunlight hits it, stars beams coem off it. This was to go across the way from his wife's tomb and they were going to connect by bridge. He never got it build because his third son of seven children decided his father was wasting funds in building the black Taj and killed his older borthers, put his father under house arrest and took over as ruler.  The for that Shah Jahal was led captive  looks out over Agra where each day he could see the Taj Mahal. 

Rumor has it that if you see the Taj when you are not looking for it while in Agra, you are destined to return. Due to the pollution I did not see it again, but I know i will return when my Dad comes to visit in December.