The drive from Delhi to Agra is 200 kilometers (124 miles). It took us close to 6 hours to get there (which is pretty typical). There seem to be no traffic laws. Cows, goats, sheep, monkeys, camels, and buffalo roam the roads along with the cars, busses, rickshaws, motocycles, and people. It's chaos. I honestly don't know how people aren't killed everyday, but somehow the chaos works. It takes a long time to get anywhere, but it works.
Here are some of the scenes from the window.
I wish I could have captured on film everything we saw, but from a car window, you can only do so much.
On the way to Agra, we stopped at a mosque.
After snapping a few pics, we were back in the car and heading towards the Agra Fort.
It's made of red sandstone and construction begun in 1565. It was originally built as a military structure, but later upgraded to a palace and prison.
The Fort was built by Emperor Akbar...His grandson, Shah Jahan finished construction.
Shah Jahan's son, Aurangzeb seized power in 1658 and imprisoned his father in it for the last 8 years of his life.
Shah Jahan was the one that also built the Taj Mahal. From the Agra Fort, you can see the Taj...
Everyday until he died, Shah Jahan could look and see his masterpiece, the Taj, but remained imprisoned inside the Fort.
It's a sad story, isn't it?
The Fort is huge.
Monkeys wander throughout the grounds.
Couples take naps in the grass.
After wandering around for awhile,
we said goodbye to the Agra Fort and made our way to the back of the Taj Mahal.
The Taj is closed on Friday's so we weren't able to go inside until the next morning.
The back of the Taj was another one of the highlights of the trip for me. We sat here for a long time...watching the sunset and marveling at the beauty of the Taj.
Where we are standing is the foundation of where the black Taj was going to be.
More background on the Taj on the next post, but Shah Jahan built the Taj as a memorial to his wife. He was going to build himself a tomb made of black marble facing the Taj, but died before being able to do so.
How amazing would it have been if there had been 2 Taj's...
We're up at 6:00am tomorrow to visit the Taj Mahal at sunrise, so after another Indian meal, we were off to bed.
The Taj deserves a post of its own :)
xx,
Lauren
1 comment:
These are great pictures Lauren- I really enjoy how to managed to capture the world around you guys not just the sites you saw. Excited to see the rest.
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