Taj Mahal India

The Taj Mahal: What to Expect When You Arrive

The Taj Mahal was completed in 1653 after 22 years of construction under the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, built as a mausoleum for his third wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth in 1631. Twenty thousand craftsmen worked on it. The white Makrana marble came from Rajasthan; the inlay stones - carnelian, lapis lazuli, jade, crystal - from across Asia and as far as Afghanistan and China. The calligraphy around the arched portals was done by a single master calligrapher, Amanat Khan.

None of that fully prepares you for seeing the main platform. The proportions work in a way that photographs compress. The dome is 35m in diameter, the main structure 73m tall. The four minarets lean slightly outward so that if they fell in an earthquake they would not damage the central building.

Getting in

Entry for foreign nationals costs INR 1,100 (approximately USD 13, 2024 pricing), which includes the east and west gates but requires a separate INR 200 ticket to enter the main mausoleum. The site opens at sunrise and closes one hour before sunset daily, closed on Fridays. Full moon nights (one day before, on, and one day after the full moon) allow evening visits on payment of a separate INR 750 ticket, bookable through the Archaeological Survey of India website.

Book tickets online in advance. The entry queues for walk-up ticket buyers at the south gate can be 45-60 minutes in peak season.

Arrive at opening. The site receives 60,000-70,000 visitors per day in high season (October-March). By 10:00 on a weekend, the main viewing platform in front of the reflecting pool becomes very crowded. At 07:00 with mist still on the river the experience is categorically different.

The complex

The Taj Mahal complex is larger than photographs suggest. Behind the main entrance (Darwaza-i Rauza) is a formal garden (Charbagh), which pre-dates the building itself in the Mughal design tradition. On either side of the mausoleum stand a mosque (to the west) and a mirror-image guest house (to the east), both in red sandstone with white marble domes - visually significant in their own right.

The mausoleum interior houses cenotaphs of both Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan (his is off-centre, added later, which troubled the original symmetry). The actual tombs are in a crypt below, not open to public viewing. The marble screen around the cenotaphs, carved from single slabs with semi-precious stone inlay, is extraordinarily detailed work.

Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri

Agra Fort, 2.5km northwest of the Taj (entry INR 650 foreign nationals), is a working military installation that was also the principal Mughal palace complex. Shah Jahan spent his last years under house arrest here, reportedly able to see the Taj Mahal from Musamman Burj, the octagonal tower facing the river.

Fatehpur Sikri, 37km west of Agra, was a complete walled city built by Akbar in the 1570s and abandoned within 15-20 years, possibly due to water supply problems. The Jama Masjid there is one of the largest mosques in India. The bus from Agra takes about an hour.

Staying in Agra

The ITC Mughal, in the Taj Ganj area close to the south entrance gate, has reliable rooms and a garden view of the Taj from its higher floors (USD 120-200 per night). Oberoi Amarvilas, 600m from the east gate, is the most expensive and most photographed hotel in Agra (USD 600-800+) with direct Taj views from most rooms. Budget travellers cluster in the Taj Ganj guesthouses south of the complex; cleanliness and service quality vary significantly.

The best food in Agra is at Dasaprakash (South Indian, reliable since the 1950s) and Pind Balluchi on Fatehabad Road. Petha - white pumpkin sweet in several varieties - is the Agra food souvenir and sold at Panchhi Petha, which has outlets throughout the city.