Exploring Agra

Time to go and see one of the wonders of the world - my rather charged program for this Saturday included a visit to Agra and the "rather famous" Taj Mahal. To make the most of the little time I had, I decided to get a private taxi driver for today (kindly booked by my colleagues) and start off really early, 5:30. Well, we ended up leaving at 6:10, I suppose time has a more relative meaning here in India ;)

Taking the brand-new express way (which seemed to be nearly deserted apart from us - then again we hit the road pretty damn early), we arrived in Agra, at the Taj Mahal at just after 8 o'clock. Which was pretty good, I reckon, since there were no queues at the ticket counter, and quite few visitors in general on the grounds...

Taj Mahal is most likely the most famous building in all of India, and could be considered one of the wonders of the world. The Taj Mahal is actually a mausoleum, built by the Mughal emperor Shah Dahan in the honour of his favourite (and third) wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child (pretty good going there!). Quite an impressive mausoleum, it must be said... It is not a very big building, but it is a stunningly beautiful one, built in bright-white marble. What counts for much is also the location - the site of the Taj Mahal is pretty much perfectly selected, along the Yamuna river. The immaculate gardens that surround the Taj Mahal also add to the beauty of the place. As the Taj Mahal is a mausoleum, there isn't much to see on the inside of the structure, especially as it's unlit, and hence rather dark. So it's all about the impressive exterior.

Having checked out the Taj Mahal (and survived the assault of the tourist trinket salesmen, rickshaw drivers and other characters trying to sell various things to me), we headed to the other major attraction at Agra, the Agra Fort. Agra Fort is probably the most well-preserved fort from the Mughal era in India, and a mighty structure it is indeed, visual striking, built entirely in red stone. Again, I was lucky enough to be one of the few visitors (I guess the tourist hordes were at the Taj Mahal at the moment - I saw the queues outside the Taj Mahal when I left). It's a huge place, especially considering only a small part can be visited by tourists (part of it is still used by the military).

India was rules from Agra fort for a long time (emperor Akbar made it his palace in 1558), which means many parts of the interior are more like a palace than a military fort (which was what I was expecting). All in all, the place reminded me quite a lot of Topkapi palace in Istanbul, which we visited about a year ago. There are some pretty nice views across the river towards the Taj Mahal as well. All in all, a very interesting place to visit (from a historical perspective, it's certainly more interesting than the Taj Mahal, although somewhat less picturesque).

After a very quick lunch (mostly due to the fact that I was suffering from a case of "Delhi Belly"), we continued on our tour towards Fatehpur Sikri. Fatehpur Sikri was an Imperial City built by the Emperor Akbar in 1569 (he ruled the Mughal empire from there between 1571 and 1585). The historic part of Fatehpur Sikri is divided into two parts - there is a religious complex and the palace part, similar to Agra Fort. Getting to Fatehpur Sikri from Agra was quite an adventure - it took us about 1 1/2 hours to drive the 30 or so kilometres that separate the two cities. And it was a rather spectacular, bumpy and noisy ride - with donkeys, pilgrims, rickshaws, buses of various sizes, cars and noisy lorries all sharing a very narrow and dusty road. This was starting to feel like "the real India"... ;)

I started by tackling the religious complex (the main building here being the Jama Masjid or Friday Mosque), together with the "official" guide I foolishly decided to hire at the parking lot (I think there was nothing official about him, and judging from the lamentations of my taxi driver afterwards, I paid him too much. Well, at least he kept the other guides off my back...). In spite of the heat that was starting to seriously get to me as well as all the touts & trinkets salesmen that kept harassing me, the place is undeniably magnificent - and it has a rather spiritual feel to it as well. One can tell it's a very important place of pilgrimage for the Muslims of India.

I then made my way across to the palace part of Fatehpur Sikri. It's quite similar to Agra fort, although perhaps a little bit less impressive. I have to say I didn't give the place the time it probably deserves, as I'd just spent a good 2 hours walking around the very similar Agra Fort, and the heat was getting pretty unbearable... But nonetheless, I walked away impressed.

I finished my visit of Fatehpur Sikri at around 3 o'clock, so decided to see one more monument before heading back to Greater Noida. After quickly consulting my Lonely Planet guide, I decided upon Akbar's Mausoleum at Sikandra (which is basically a suburb of Agra). Akbar was one of the great Mughal emperors (obviously - his name means great in Arabic), and his mausoleum was kind of a prototype for the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal could be considered a more graceful, more ideally located version of Akbar's mausoleum. So all in all, a place well worth seeing, but perhaps I should've visited it before the Taj Mahal (I would no doubt have been more impressed...).

That brought and end to a rather intensive day of visits - time to hit the express way and return back to the relative tranquillity of my hotel. All in all, it had been a day full of experiences: fantastic monuments, colourful scenes of everyday life in India, a lot of noise, a lot of people trying to sell me pretty much everything one can imagine (except what I was looking for - sun tan lotion - seems that it doesn't exist in India !?). India in a nutshell, I guess one could say.