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  • Julie

Taj Mahal and Agra

We started bright and early today and went to visit the Taj Mahal! It was built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan in 1630 as a tomb for his wife. It was amazing. The whole complex is perfectly symmetrical except for the king's tomb, which wasn't meant to be added. Our guide explained to us that there used to be a story that the king wanted to build a black version on the other side of the river for himself, but there have been archaeological digs done and there is no evidence of it. We took plenty of pictures and got to go inside to see the replicas of the tombs (the real ones are below). The whole thing was made of marble that was intricately carved with inlaid stones.




We then went back to the hotel for breakfast before going to see the Agra Fort. We could only visit half of it because the military still uses part of it! It is made of sandstone. It also contains the original burial spot for the king who was moved to Taj Mahal.



Our third stop was a marble workshop, where we got to see how they carve and inlay stones in the marble. It is a very long process! Interestingly, the people who do this work today are descended from the people who built Taj Mahal!



We then left Agra to head for Jaipur. We made two stops along the way. The first was at Fatehpur Sikri, a walled city. It has the largest domed doorway in the world! The doorway was actually inspiration for Taj Mahal, since it was built earlier in 1569. Our second pit stop was at a step well called Chand Baori. The pit in The Dark Knight was based on this step well.



Afterwards, we continued to Jaipur and had dinner at a restaurant called Indiana. Three women danced while balancing pots of fire on their heads. One of the ladies stacked up 6 pots! I got to place one on her stack, and we got to dance with them while we waited for dinner. Once we ate, we got to our hotel and went to sleep!



 

Edited and pictures added June 2019

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