Day thirty two 18-11-10

Today I finally visited the Taj Mahal. We left early in the morning with a rickshaw. Once there around half 8 a couple of guides offered their services. I got one eventually for 200 rupees. He told us a lot about the tai mahal. To explain this to you, I need pictures. At the time I don't have them so you need some imagination and if you don't have that much, I advise to read later. So for all the imaginary people:

When you arrive by rickshaw, the driver can bring you quite close to the gate that leads to the taj mahal. If you are on a tour by an organisation or hotel you will arrive at a roundabout. From there bikes will bring you close to the gate. Once through the gate you arrive at the graveyard with the first grave on you're right. This is the grave of Fatehpuri Begum which is the first of the three wives that were married to Shah Jahan. The second wife (Sarhindi Begum) is buried about 100 meters from (also on the right side of the pathway) her in an exactly the same kind of grave (keep in mind that the graves are big structures, not just a stone with R.I.P. on it)
In the middle of the two graves there is a big structure on the right of the pathway. This is the royal entrance (105ft high) towards Taj Mahal where the third wife (Mumtaj Begum) was burried. This grave is better known as the Taj Mahal (previously known as Mumtaj Mahal, but the english changed it into Taj Mahal which is a bit double stupid in my opinion, why?Firtsly stupid because it s an Indian world wonder which is named by the creator Mumtaj Mahal so why change it? and secondly, the name Mumtaj Mahal means: Beautifull (Mum) Crown (Taj) Palace (Mahal). So now it is only a crown palace instead of a beautiful crown palace). The entrance structure's gate is exactly aligned with the top of the Taj Mahal and exactly in between the other graves. The entrance is build with 22 domes on top, which represents the 22 years (1631 till 1653) that it took to build the graveyard and the age that Shan Jahan got married to his third wife. As you understand by now is that the third wife was very special to Shan Jahan. Which is the reason why he build the enormous (one billion rupees, at the time) grave for her. It is build out of complete marble and decorated with precious stones (Onyx, Malakai, Jasper, Corlinion) and pure gold pinnacles on top of the domes. From a distance the colours on Taj Mahal look painted but from close by you can see that each line is made out of a different stone. At present day the gold pinnacles are not there anymore, they have been stolen by the British to decorate the Big Ben.

Now some more random numbers about Taj Mahal:
20000 workers build the Taj Mahal
It takes 22 steps to climb the Taj Mahal
There are 16 gardens completely symmetric (almost everything at the graveyard is symmetric)
53 fountains are present in front of the Taj Mahal, which is combined 1653 which is the year that Taj Mahal was finished.
74 meters high is Taj Mahal from top to botom
With the third wife Shah Jahan had 14 children where 3 died during birth.
Six architects designed the Taj Mahal (Persian, Turkish, Iranian and Indians)

There is also a possibility to see the Taj Mahal from the other side of the river on which it is on. On the area you stand then is actually the supposedly construction side of the Black Taj. This side was meant to be the place where Shaj Jahan wanted to build a copy of the Taj Mahal in black for himself as a grave. It didn't work out because his own son arrested him before that for eight years.

That is about it for the story about Taj Mahal. The pictures will tell more off-coarse but you need to wait a bit for that. After coming back to the Hotel we where off to Jaipur where we arrived in the evening.


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