India: Agra in Pictures

Sunday afternoon, following hours in the car and a monkey incident, we reached Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.  In short, it is as magnificent as you have been led to believe. Maybe more so.  I love when architecture has the power to elicit a common response and you would be hard-pressed to find someone at the Taj Mahal who didn't utter "Wow" at least once.  And, while you are free to walk through the palace itself as we did, Matt and I decided it is most impressive upon first glance through the entry gate.

I won't bog down this post with too much text because millions of others have written about the place more descriptively and eloquently than I will.  Millions have also taken better pictures so file these under "Yes, we were there!" rather than "National Geographic contenders."

Approaching the entry gate

Looking through the gate, Taj Mahal beyond

Behold!

A picture of all the people taking pictures.

Fun fact: Indian nationals now account for 75% of visitors and foreigners are 25%.  10 years ago, this was the opposite.

Marble inlay.

Possibly the worst "We were there!" photo ever, courtesy of our tour guide.  He should stick to words instead of pictures. :)

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IF YOU GO: You could probably plan to spend a full day and night in Agra seeing some of the other monuments but you can also get in and get out in a day.  We weren't going to get a tour guide because so many of them are using the term "guide" liberally.  But, Anil set us up with someone who provided just enough info as to make it a worthwhile partnership for an hour.