Stephen Tapply Photography
 
India 4

Agra - The Taj Mahal

This is the alley leading to the South Gate of the Taj Mahal and there's no queue at the ticket office ... ...in contrast to the West Gate, where the queues to get in are sometimes 100m long! There are 76 rupees to the pound ... Indians pay about 25p Beautiful, translucent, delicately patterned marble...
...elegant, graceful minarets... ...on the Itimad-Ud-Daulah, better known as the Baby Taj, across the river It's really peaceful... beautifully proportioned and this is about as busy as it gets!
I managed to find a reflection photo at Agra Fort -they were watering the garden Intricately carved out of red sandstone Shah Jahan, who built the Taj, was imprisoned here by his son, Aurangzeb, possibly because Shah Jahan was spending too much of the empire's money on his constructions I bet they didn't buy tickets- it's only 250 rupees for foreigners in the Fort
Shah Jehan's view of the Taj would have been rather restricted ... ...like this... ...or this... Or, if he was lucky, this. Visitors to the fort seem to spend more time looking at the Taj than they do at the fort ...
...it is pretty impressive in the distance... ...and having their photo taken with the Taj as a backdrop ... ...then, when they leave, it's time to face the purveyors of postcards, autorickshaws, or, bizarrely, mini-Tajs in glass bubbles with snowstorms. If they're not in a tour group, they get to brave Agra traffic in an autorickshaw.
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