Hello and welcome to our first real big adventure in India.
This series of blogs are part of a massive trip that we are currently on through India then a quick stop off back home in Australia and then off Thailand.
Picking up where we left off in our last blog, we had only arrived in India the day before and we just starting to come to terms with our culture shock.
So today we are off on a tour that I had pre-booked before we left to see the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort which are both located in the City of Agra which is about a 3 hour drive from where we were staying in Delhi.
The day started with buffet breakfast that was included with our stay at the Suryaa Hotel in New Delhi. Then we needed to meet our driver by 7:30 am ready to start the drive to Agra.
As this was our first time to India we told the driver that if there is anything that he felt that we should see to please do go ahead and point it out and tell us about it.
But as it turned out EVERYTHING was interesting to us!
From the moment we got in the car and there were not seat belt plugs for the back seat! Then how the traffic works/ doesn't work was a shock! we must have taken so many videos and photos of the traffic.
There were lines on thee road but no one seemed to take any notice of them. If there is a gap in traffic and your car will fit in that gap, then you could just get right in there! and for good measure beep you horn to let all the cars around you know what you are doing! I think beeping your horn means 'I'm coming up behind you' or 'move over' or 'watch out' or any number of other things as there seemed to be long beeps and short beeps, but then there was also the constant beeping.😂
As we went along the trip became a giant game of 'I spy' - in that everywhere you look there was someone weird doing something that you never thought you would ever see.
So why not start you off with the top 10 things that we saw in India that we never expected to see:
1. A random adult walk into the bushes and went to the bathroom right where you could still see them. Pants down and full squat! in broad day light!
2. A feral dog walk into a ladies toilet like it was no bodies business and start eating used sanitary napkins out the bins 😖😲
3. Vehicles driving the wrong way up an off ramp - it seems that you are allowed to access the road by any means necessary, if there is a gap in fence on the side of a road you can go all terrain to get on that road through that gap.
4. Backing backwards on a highway - This is along the lines of the same as above. If you miss your exit you can just hit the breaks and put the car in revers and get back to that exit that you missed (see Below - black SUV).
5. Buildings that are finished, but they leave the rebar hanging out the top just in case they want to add another level in the future. Literally building with wires poking out the top all rusty and bent.
6. Mega ghost cities in the middle of no where half built and abandoned looking.
I think this is part of India coming up in the world and getting mega infrastructure upgrades.
I would describe them as 'satellite cities' but I think the driver called them sectors. In any case the thing is that there are huge sky scrappers all half built heaps of them!! but there didn't seem to be anyone working on them. It was a weird site to see almost like a post apocalyptic event had occurred.
So a rich developer buys an area and then just starts sprouting as many skyscrapers as possible in that area all at one time. There was not just one or two of these sectors there were heaps just popping up in the middle of nowhere!
7. Cows and dogs just sitting in the middle of the road and people just driving around them. The cow thing is because they are sacred animals so they are left to their own devises if they are not producing milk or working. The dogs for the most part are native and just keep to themselves and people leave them alone. So as a result you see these two main animals sleeping in the streets.
To add to the toilet confusion I didn't ever work out which way you are suppose to straddle these things let alone what to do with the hose that seemed to replace toilet paper. Do you spray front to back? or back to front? and what direction do you face while you are doing all this???!!!
9.The brick making:
As we got to a particular point along our journey we started to see these smoke stacks popping up everywhere and then straight away there was a brick making venture just there off the side of the road with bricks laying out drying, other bricks are stacked up to one side while I guess they keep making bricks.
10.The Max max trucks
They really like to decorate their vehicles over here and all the trucks were decorated to some degree or another.
Well that is the list for what we saw in general from our time in India not just this trip specifically even though most of it did happen on this trip to Agra, and of course we will elaborate of some of the stories further as we get to them.
Ok back to the trip
Because we told the drive to point out whatever he though was important and because we kept taking heaps of photos out the window the driver did stop a few times for us to get out and take photos of the things that we were looking at.
So here they are:
The Mud Huts:
There were these straw type of hut structures that we first saw in the middle of fields but then we came across what I could only assume was a village and that the hut were the houses.
To go not 1 hours drive from a city where people are walking around with smart phones to a field where people are living in grass huts!! **mind blown**
In general the assumption that these were dwellings was correct, in this part of India the structures were huts. But as were later learned there are also similar looking structures that are used for wheat grain storage and we can come to that later as well, but for now here are the huts in the village(Above and Below).
The Cow Pats:
You can also see in the photo above the pile of cow pats that are stacked up in the village.
This is a funny one for me because if you don't see it you don't understand it.
India has a massive population and is not yet very advanced in the world. So in order to cook or stay warm they still use fire (in some cases they do have gas for cooking). But with so many people with the same needs there are not really any trees in India. I mean you have private plantations but as far as we could see no forests etc.
People still need to cook and stay warm so what they do is to use the cow poo and they mix is with straw and then set it out to dry (See Below) so that they have little 'log' type patties that will burn but not too quickly.
Interesting hey!!
The Nilgai - The "blue bulls" :
While driving along the highway to the Taj Mahal we spotted some strange animals and got some photos of them. They are called "Blue Bulls"/"Blue Cows" by the locals, their Hindi name is "Nilgai" (which literally means blue cow). They are actually a species of antelope native to India (northern regions mostly) and are protected by the same laws as cows are. They are pests, which roam around and destroy farms and annoy the farmers. We really liked seeing these exotic beasts roaming around in the grassy scrubby plains, just doing there thing unmolested. The females are a brown colour with black and white striped feet, whereas the males give their species their name with their blue-grey coat and they have horns (see Below).
Ok well we better skip to what we actually set out to see or this blog will get too big very quickly.
The Taj Mahal - the "Crown Palace"
So we finally made it to the Taj after a what should have been 3 hour journey but ended up being longer due to the multiple stops we made along the way. As we arrived into Agra we stopped and picked up our tour guide who was a well spoken older gentleman that I really took a shine to straight away. He was no nonsense he told us straight away what the plan was and how everything was going to go. It was also good that he was happy to take photos of us while we did our tour and he told the locals to bugger off when they all started to ask for photos with the 'white people'.
Background:
The Taj Mahal also known as The Pearl Mosque at Agra, was commission by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ('the romantic') after the death of is third and favorite wife the empress Mumtaz Mahal [1593 AD – 1631 AD] as her mausoleum.
Quick detour for those interested - Who were the Mughals? They are a dynasty formed of people from Central Asia with Mongolian and Turkish/Persian(Iranian) background, who conquered India in the 1500's and introduced their Arabic/Persian culture. The Empire started in Kabul, Afghanistan, and pushed south into India.
Construction on the Taj began about 1631 AD and is said to have finished in 1648 AD (17 years) although the gardens were not finished until 5 years later in 1653 AD (22 years total). It took approximately 20,000 workers (of various skills and professions) almost 23 years to make this amazing monument.
As you will see as we go into the different features of the Taj Mahal as a whole, this was all constructed using thousands of artisans and craftsmen, whose skills you will come to be very impressed with!
The Taj has a 'no pollution zone around it so we were not able to drive straight up to it. The reason for the 'no pollution zone' was that at some point some one noticed that the Taj was starting to change colour. So in 1996 the Supreme Court of India delivered a ruling banning the use of coal/coke in the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) which is an area of 10,400 sq km around the Taj Mahal. See map Below:
Instead the surrounding industries had to change to using natural gas or relocate to outside the TTZ. The TTZ comprises of 40 protected monuments including three World Heritage Sites - Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri.
whc.unesco.org/en/list/252
As a result we were dropped of outside the TTZ and then walked until we went past some barriers where there were battery powered vehicles or bikes.
We got on one of these battery powered vehicles and it took us right to the entrance to the Taj.
The map above shows a rough layout of the Taj Mahal. The site is not just one building but a combination of a few different components within the site area, and every component of the area is perfectly aligned and in relation to every other component!
It's amazing, but let me tell you all about it!
The Symmetry:
It is hard to see it too much from the rough map above but the site is exactly symmetrical if you drew a line through the middle of the Taj to the middle of the Great Gate you will find that everything is mirrored all the way to the other side of the river where the king had intended to build a black Taj until his son told him to retire and took over power.
From the centre of the Taj Mahal itself, 8 imaginary lines come out radially in an octagonal pattern and all the buildings, tiles, artwork, and almost everything else about the site are aligned with, or mirrored about, these lines. There is a North-South major axis line which is what the main symmetry of the site is based on, where the left and right sides of the site are mirrored using that line. The left and right Mosque style buildings on either side of the Taj itself are a good example of this. The Western Mosque faces towards Mecca, so is a functional mosque, and the Eastern one doesn't, so acted as a guest-house and general extra building - but it had to be there in order to maintain the symmetry. The gate houses follow similar patterns of symmetry.
The Foundations: The Taj Mahal site is built on a raised platform made of Ebony wood to make it flat, and this platform was built over a set of deep wells to allow it to be stable and avoid disturbing or eroding the nearby river Yamuna's banks. This also made it more stable in the case of earthquakes. The wood doesn't rot, because the water is covering it and without air exposure the wood is stable - these wooden foundations and wells have stood the test of time, lasting 350+ years so far!
The Gate house / The Great Gate:
This is the building that you can see at the bottom of the map above (also image Below) and the first structure that we saw upon entering the area from the right. It in itself is a very impressive building but it does combine the same skills and techniques that are used in the Taj but rather then being constructed out of marble like the Taj it contrasts as does the other building on the site by being constructed out of red sandstone, similar to what was used in the Red Fort.
The Taj itself:
Design:
As I promised the beauty in the Taj is in the details so I would like to go into them really quickly so that you get an idea of how mind blowing it is!
The Pillars (Minarets)
The pillars that you see that flank the Taj in the photo below serve no purpose except to 'complete' the Taj. That is to say that if you took them away wouldn't the Taj look a little naked? So no one can go up in the pillars or anything, they are just aesthetic pillars, that is it.
Fun Fact: The pillars actually lean slightly outward so that if they were ever to fall they would not fall and damage the Taj!
The engraving
The detail that you can see in the photo below of flowers and writing etc. is not painted on.
If it had been painted it would fade and flake as time passed. So all the details that you are seeing are all semi-precious stones that are slowly and painstakingly worked into each individual shape and then inserted into equal painstakingly carved recesses that have been etched out of the marble to fit the stones perfectly. This process is calling "inlaying". They use a special glue to hold the coloured stones into their recesses, and have survived 350+ years.
Below: Do you notice that it is all one slab of marble and that every colour change in the design means another stone.
Below: To zoom out a bit you can see the details from the image above bordering the photo below, where you can also see each and every detail of these flowers has also been carved out of the marble. No Mistakes, no white out. This is absolute perfection! it blows my mind! and this is just one corner of one wall. This detail is all over the Taj!
After we had seen the Taj and the Red Fort we were actually take to a place were these guys that do this work actually still do it to this day using the same tradition methods. So I will elaborate on this process now so that it can really sink in.
Above Left: You can see each part/petal of this flower that has been shaped perfectly to fit with every other piece.
Above Right: You can see how the parts all come together exactly.
This is only half the story though you can also see that the white and the green bits in the flower are distinctly different stones that have been shaped to match the colour, shade and grain that is needed to give the specific effect.
Below: See the changes in colour - look closely at the colour changes in the center. Each colour change is a whole new stone that has been worked to that very specific tiny shape!
Below are some other projects that are further along. Here you can see that the marble has been washed with an orange pigment so that the design can be scratched into it, and then once finished the orange will be washed off.
Below: This is the machine that they use to grind away the stones to the exact size. Do you see how far the technology has come?! do you have a greater appreciation for the work?
OK, I will stop with the detail now as I know that I could go on and on as it just blows my mind and for that reason the Taj is at the top of my list of architecture that I have seen in the world!
Our experience
I though that it might be nice to do a quick summary of what we though about the Taj, I mean you all ready know that I was mind-blown, but perhaps Kyran wants to say something.
Well, I reckon the Taj Mahal is the coolest monument I've seen so far, in terms of the engineering and architecture, the period it was built in, and the overall impression that it delivers. The Mughals certainly knew what they were doing and knew how to build impressive buildings to stand the test of time. I bet the designers and craftsmen would be proud to know their work still brings joy to so many and is in such good condition to this day! We had a lot of selfies with the locals while there - apparently they don't see white people much haha.
Ok well let get to the last thing that we had to see on this tour and that is the Red Fort in Agra.
The Red Fort in Agra:
This Red Fort is a Historical Fort that was the main residence for the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty (until 1638) when Agra was the capital of India (before it was moved to Delhi). Later it was used by the British administrators for the region, as the administrative headquarters - evidence of which can be seen by the sarcophagus of a British administrator for the North-West provinecs John Russell Colvin located on the site out in front of the main palace entrance. It was made to it's current design and appearance between 1565 and 1573 during the reign of the Mughal king Akbar. It has a magnificent red-brown colour, from its red sandstone construction.
The outer walls are up to 70 feet high, with double story battlements. The gate houses are multi-layered with excellent design of the entry to the fort, to make it really hard for the enemy to breach it. Between the two main gatehouses is a 90 degree turn (see below), to prevent the enemy from using elephants to bash it down as they need a flat, long stretch of area to build up momentum.
At one of the main entrances, after the second gatehouse there's a long sloped ramp going up to the inside of the fort (see below), which also hinders attackers. I imagine it could be used to roll heavy objects down to crush the enemy, and make any siege equipment or elephants trying to go up the hill much slower and more difficult to control while being rained down on with arrows and stones.
It was truly and impressive fortification in its own right, including the beautiful marble palace-like buildings built inside by the Mughal emperors.
The Emperor Shah Jahan ended up retiring and living at the Red Fort, supposedly spending the remaining years of his life in a marble "penthouse" with a view directly across the landscape to the Taj Mahal (where his wife was buried) only ~2km away. The son of the emperor took over after the Taj Mahal was finished, but before Shah Jahan would get too carried away with his plan to make an opposing mirrored site on the other side of the river for a black version of the Taj Mahal.
Below: The marble mini-palace built in the Red Fort, where supposedly the retired emperor Shah Jahan lived out his remaining days, mourning his lost wife Mumtaz and watching over her resting place.
Above: The view from the Red Fort out over the plains to the Taj, about 2km away.
Below: At the entrance to the marble palace area within the fort, there are some iconic archways similar to what we saw in Spain in the Moor-ish architecture, popular in the Arab world and architecture
Well that brings us to the end of this one-day adventure out to see the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort in Agra.
After everything it was time to make the 3 hour drive back to our accommodation and get moving on to Amritsar the next day!
This is where we get into the famous Indian wedding!
Before we go I should mention (because you will hear more about it later) that on our way back to Delhi there was actually a huge storm that we didn't find out until the next day. We were heading to the airport and our guide guy was saying that "hard snow" had come down in the storm and that he had never seen anything like it before. We had to explain what hail was and the video that he showed us was actually some pretty crazy hail - it did in fact cover the ground like snow does.
Extra Fun Fact Photo Below: This is how they cut the grass at the Taj Mahal
I am sorry that it was such a long blog, but we were super excited to see everything and learn about it all and just wanted to let you all know how impressing it all was.
Specifically the Taj Mahal! If you are an avid follower of us you will know that about 2 years ago we went to France to see 'The Palace of Versailles' and that was supposed to be the palace of all palaces! Well for me I thought that the Taj Mahal (merely a tomb) far out-classed the Palace of Versailles, so that is saying a lot. The "Crown Palace" Indeed!
Any way I had better let you all go thanks again for reading and stay tuned for our next blog where we arrive in the Punjab province to get started on preparations for the exciting Punjabi wedding!
Below: The amount of stamps that we had to get just to catch a domestic flight in India
Until next time, stay curious!
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