The Taj Mahal

The Most Photogenic Monument in the World...

Teg- The Taj is exactly how you’d expect it to be. Breathtaking. Unbelievable. It’s funny actually, if you look at this blog backdrop it’s a shot of the Taj taken from the NE corner at sunset, with the Yamuna river to the right (North). Being out on that river was my best experience of the Taj Mahal. Though this backdrop is beautiful, it doesn’t really depict what an average day at the Taj is really like. Crowded beyond belief, like ants, we all roam. And I guess, rightfully so. But out there on the river, it was something else. Just Mike and I (and the two men who paddled us out) onthe only boat out on the river. We were able to view the sunset from a great, if not the best, view of the Taj. 

We went inside the Taj Mahal grounds the following day - where Indian/foreign price difference seems to have hit its peak (20/750 Rps) – at sunrise and this too was amazing. Not as crowded early on which was nice. But don’t be fooled, it was still swarming with photographers eager to make a rupee or two. My fondest memory at the Taj was the cool (relatively clean?) marble that I couldn’t keep my hands off of.

Mike – I echo Teg’s thoughts exactly. The touts and prices can be a real detractor for most people when they visit the Taj, but I say: “Get over it!” The building is truly a man-made marvel.

Arriving at our hotel, ascending to their rooftop restaurant, and being welcomed by a view of the Taj is a really great feeling. Not only did we not expect to be so close, but you realize, even from a distance, how detailed and well thought-out the structure really is.

The crowds really never phased us either, besides perhaps the jostling around that everyone has to go through in order to get the perfect shot of the Taj and it’s reflection (something that you just can’t resist doing). Otherwise, it’s very humbling to be in the presence of one of the most recognized buildings in the world. So recognizable, in fact, it seemed that each angle and each view-point we’d seen before on some poster or another. But, the act of simply “being there” just takes your breath away.

Salman Rushdie said it best when writing a piece for National Geographic:

Announcing itself as itself, insisting with absolute force on its sovereign authority, it simply obliterated the million million counterfeits of it and glowingly filled, once and for ever, the place in the mind previously occupied by its simulcra.

And this, finally, is why the Taj Mahal must be seen: to remind us that the world is real, that the sound is truer than the echo, the original more forceful than its image in a mirror. The beauty of beautiful things is still able, in these image-saturated times, to transcend imitations. And the Taj Mahal is, beyond the power of words to say it, a lovely thing, perhaps the loveliest of things.