Taj Mahal India

The Taj Mahal’s Minarets Are Designed to Fall Away from the Building

The four minarets lean slightly outward so that in an earthquake they would fall away from the central mausoleum rather than onto it. This detail, encoded into the design by engineers who completed the building in 1653, is one small indicator of what Shah Jahan’s craftsmen understood that you do not immediately expect from a monument built to honour grief.

The Taj Mahal was begun in 1632 as a mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal, Shah Jahan’s third wife, who died in childbirth the previous year. Twenty thousand craftsmen worked on it for 22 years. The white Makrana marble came from Rajasthan. The inlay stones – carnelian, lapis lazuli, jade, crystal – came from across Asia, from Afghanistan and China. The calligraphy around the arched portals was done by a single master calligrapher, Amanat Khan, who signed his own name on the completed work. The dome is 35 metres in diameter and the main structure 73 metres tall. None of this fully prepares you for seeing the main platform from the entrance gate.

Getting In

Entry for foreign nationals costs INR 1,100 (approximately USD 13), which includes the east and west gates. Entering the main mausoleum requires a separate INR 200 ticket. Full moon nights (one day before, on, and one day after) allow evening visits for INR 750, bookable through the Archaeological Survey of India website. Book tickets online in advance; walk-up queues can be 45 to 60 minutes at peak.

Arrive at opening. The site receives 60,000 to 70,000 visitors per day in high season (October through March). By 10:00 on a weekend the main viewing platform is very crowded. At 07:00 with morning mist still on the Yamuna River behind it, the experience is categorically different.

The Complex

The Charbagh (formal garden) pre-dates the mausoleum in the Mughal design tradition. On either side of the mausoleum stand a mosque (west) and a mirror-image guest house (east), both in red sandstone with white marble domes, worth attention on their own terms. The interior houses cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan (his is off-centre, added later, disturbing the original symmetry). The marble screen around the cenotaphs, carved from single slabs with semi-precious stone inlay, is extraordinary close-up.

Agra Beyond the Taj

Agra Fort (entry INR 650), 2.5km northwest, was the principal Mughal palace complex. Shah Jahan spent his last years under house arrest here, reportedly able to see the Taj from Musamman Burj, the octagonal tower facing the river.

Fatehpur Sikri, 37km west, was a complete walled city built by Akbar in the 1570s and abandoned within 15 to 20 years, possibly due to water supply problems. The bus from Agra takes about an hour.

Staying

The ITC Mughal near the south entrance gate has reliable rooms and garden views (USD 120 to 200). The Oberoi Amarvilas, 600m from the east gate, has direct Taj views from most rooms (USD 600 to 800-plus). Budget guesthouses cluster in Taj Ganj south of the complex; quality varies. Petha – white pumpkin sweet in several varieties – is the Agra food souvenir worth bringing home.