We then drove to Fatehpur Sikri which is the “Lost City”. It was surrounded by the most aggressive hawkers we encountered. By now we were all forted out, but this was an interesting place. We also watched some stone carving being done as part of a major restoration effort.

Then back to the bus and off to Agra for a quick lunch in another old palace now run by the Taj hotel group. Then to the grandest of them all. The Taj Mahal. These first photo’s are of one of the entrance gates.

In itself this is an amazing bit of architecture. The stone work inlaid into the marble is various shades of agate and jasper with blue lapis. This type of work is called Petra Dur (petra = rock and I guess Dur is latin for picture?) which was supervised by artisans from Florence where this was very popular during the renaissance. Well fortunately this is a digital camera and we don’t pay for film:

Close up and inside the inner chamber you can see the tombs of the Maharaja’s wife in the center, and his to one side. The entire structure was built for his favorite wife (ask me about the Turkish ‘Fav’ story) and was symmetrical. The Raj intended to build a black version across the river, but his son thought he was balmy and locked him up till he kicked the bucket, then buried him beside his fav wife; thus destroying the symmetry of this amazing place.

Here are some inside shots (the actual tomb is 1 floor down – this one was built because it is again Moslem law for other than close rellies to visit a tomb.)

After touring another palace for thankfully just 1/2 and hour, we ate on board the train which had gone a different route to Agra. In the morning we were back in Delhi and headed off to the Taj which was just south of the centre of town. We did quite a bit of shopping there – because Indian women mostly wear sari’s, I had a ball – for once I got more stuff than Drena, boy was she put out!!!

The weather was just perfect – cold at the Tiger park very early in the morning, and occasionally a little warm thru the day – as good as it gets though. It was probably lowest of 10°C and highs of 28°C, but 18-22 most of the time.