Taj Mahal at sunrise.
February 6, 2026, Friday
We left our hostel at 6:30 am to walk on the Nature Walk to the Taj Mahal. We could have taken a golf cart, but we all wanted to walk after our long train trip. Agra was India's capital under the Mughals. The Mughals were a Muslim dynasty of Turco-Mongol origin. They reigned during the 16th-19th centuries. The Taj Mahal was built by the fifth Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, for his third and favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, after she died in childbirth with her fourteenth child. The emperor was devastated at her death and set out to create an unsurpassed monument to her. The building is a mausoleum for her.
The arch gate entrance to the monument.
There are twenty-two marble domes on top of the gate in two rows. Each dome represents a year of construction. It took twenty-two years to construct the building.
View in the misty morning air.
Our guide told us we were very lucky to come on this day because the last eight days had very bad air quality. The morning tours could not see the Taj from a distance! He showed us pictures on his phone. But by the time we were finishing the tour, we had blue skies.
The Taj is built with bilateral symmetry. The grounds follow the same pattern as well. Each part of the Taj meticulously mirrors the other half.
Notice the angle of the minarets.
Each of the four minarets angle outward by 2 - 2.5 degrees. This architectural feature will cause the towers to fall away from the building should an earthquake strike, thereby preserving the mausoleum.
We didn't dress up for our photo-op!
It was a brisk morning (47 degrees) and many of our students were dressed in their Indian clothing with a light scarf to keep them warm. They were out for their Instagram moment. We wore several layers with water bottles stuffed in our jacket pockets! Our guide knew all the photo spots. We felt like we had a wedding photographer with us!
Close-up of the lower portion of the main mausoleum.
As the sun came out and we got closer, the building continued to change color. The light constantly changes the color of the walls. It can look pink and change to a brilliant white. At sunset it can have warmer orange tones. The detail work is made from jasper, jade, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. The stones gleam in the sunlight. We put shoe protectors over our shoes and were allowed to go inside. We could not take pictures, but we saw the marble crypts. The building is actually made of brick but the brick is lined with Makana Indian marble that is very hard and nonporous.
Entrance to the Agra Fort
We finished our tour and walked back to the hostel for breakfast. We packed up and took the bus to the Agra Fort. We were so wowed by the Taj, we didn't expect a fort to impress us much. We were certainly wrong! The fort is a 16th century, 94-acre sandstone fortress that is still functioning today! We were only allowed to tour 30 percent of it. The Indian army uses a large portion of it still today.
The fort is surrounded by two moats. One held crocodiles and alligators and the other had wild animals in it. The engineering of the fort was remarkable. Our guide showed us all kinds of optical illusions as well as very clever inventions. They used a series of pulleys to draw water from the Yamuna River to fill aqueducts that could then fill fountains and bathtubs. There is one palace called the "summer palace" that had hollow walls. They could pour water into the walls to keep the rooms cool. They even had windows that drafted air to cool rooms.
Detail work inside a courtyard.
Not only was the architectural design functional, it was aesthetically beautiful as well with elephants and flowers carved into the sandstone.
The fort has views of the Taj Mahal.
There is also a tragic story about Shah Jahan, the emperor who built the Taj Mahal for his wife. Later in his life, he was imprisoned in this fort by his son Aurangzeb during a fight for who was to succeed him. Confined to a tower, he spent his final eight years gazing at the Taj Mahal he built for his wife.
These walls were once inlaid with precious stones and jewels.
The stones and jewels were removed by the "Britishes", as our guide called them. So, you have to go to the British Museum to see them. And you have to see the crown jewels to see Kohinoor Diamond that originally belonged to the Mughal emperors but was lost to them in 1849.
An upscale Indian rest area.
After the fort, we got in our bus for a three-and-a-half hour drive to Delhi. We knew we were stopping at a rest area for a late lunch and opted for Pizza Hut!
The Yumuna River today. The foam is caused by pollution.
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