The thing about the Taj Mahal is that it’s one of those places that looks just like the photos. The structure was built in 1631, completed in 1654—a feat that required the skill of more than 20,000 laborers—and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. However, the Taj is undoubtedly one of those boxes every traveler needs to check off when going to India.
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| नमस्ते, Namaste |
Once you arrive at the Taj, you must purchase your tickets and either walk the kilometer (ish) to the gate or take one of the on-site trams. To avoid being harassed by the many shop owners trying to lure us inside their storefront and guilt us into buying cheap crap we don’t want—and because we had a couple of older travelers with us—we opted for the latter. It wasn’t unlike the process to get to Disney World (only with less singing, more hustling).
One important thing to note before visiting the Taj is that pretty much everything is banned.
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| In short, EVERYTHING is BANNED |
After we had gone through the ticketing point, I kept waiting for a peek at Her before we actually arrived—I assumed we’d see Her from a distance, and then inch closer and closer, the vantage point changing with every step we took—but She was more or less shielded from the public eye by a rather substantial gate.And then we passed through said gate and BAM! There she stood in all Her centuries-old glory.
To enter the mausoleum, you must take off your shoes. While the line was not short and snaked its way around the front side of the building, it went relatively fast and we were inside within 15 minutes. Once there, we spent less than five minutes padding around in our slippers before going back outdoors. I think the most impressive beauty of the structure is from the outside anyway.
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| Mass Crowd |
While the monument was more or less exactly what I was expecting, there’s no denying it’s one spectacular piece of work, particularly when you get up real close and fully inhale its intricate, minute features.
Here another pictures of Taj Mahal, from different sides and angles
LOVE YA,
BYE ♥♥
