Day 15: 19/9/2011
Like mentioned in our last post, we had reached Agra the previous day. So, early in the morning, we went ahead to go, have a look at the greatest symbol of love in the world - The Taj Mahal. It is a monument that has now become a parameter of love in many senses. The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan spared no expense and left no stone unturned to proclaim his grief on the death of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. (Yes, that is right. The Taj Mahal, in reality, is nothing but magnificent mausoleum.)
The Taj Mahal is built out of white marble, which came from Makrana in Rajasthan and it has many precious stones embedded in it, which were imported. These precious stones give out wonderful effects in light and increase the beauty of the Taj Mahal manifold. It is rightfully considered as one of the wonders of the world since such architecture can rarely be found anywhere. It has perfect symmetry and no matter which side you see it from, it will look exactly the same. At a time when gold cost merely Rs. 15 per tola, this structure cost approximately Rs. 385000. Also, one of the other specialties of this structure is that it's base is made of ebony wood, which is found in Kashmir. Ebony wood gets stronger with water. Which means that the base of this structure automatically keeps getting stronger every passing minute since it is built on the banks of River Yamuna. At the same time, the wooden base automatically makes it earthquake proof. To add to the caution, all the minarets of the structure also lean outwards so that in case of any natural calamity, the minarets will never fall on the structure but outwards.
The monument is so beautiful, we could have stood there and stared at it for hours on end. But the time restrictions beckoned us and we had to move on. We drove on until Jhansi on this day. The claim to fame of this route was that we crossed three states - Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh - on this day. :)
We wanted to reach Saagar in Madhya Pradesh. But the road conditions were extremely bad. Also, we were quite confused about the route . Two routes were suggested to us, which would take us to Nagpur faster: via Saagar and via Shivpuri. But we couldn't decide which one to take. So, we decided to rest our confusaddled minds and bodies in Jhansi and move ahead the next day. We stayed at Apna guesthouse in Ivory chowk, Jhansi.
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| The Monument that renders everyone speechless |
Like mentioned in our last post, we had reached Agra the previous day. So, early in the morning, we went ahead to go, have a look at the greatest symbol of love in the world - The Taj Mahal. It is a monument that has now become a parameter of love in many senses. The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan spared no expense and left no stone unturned to proclaim his grief on the death of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. (Yes, that is right. The Taj Mahal, in reality, is nothing but magnificent mausoleum.)The Taj Mahal is built out of white marble, which came from Makrana in Rajasthan and it has many precious stones embedded in it, which were imported. These precious stones give out wonderful effects in light and increase the beauty of the Taj Mahal manifold. It is rightfully considered as one of the wonders of the world since such architecture can rarely be found anywhere. It has perfect symmetry and no matter which side you see it from, it will look exactly the same. At a time when gold cost merely Rs. 15 per tola, this structure cost approximately Rs. 385000. Also, one of the other specialties of this structure is that it's base is made of ebony wood, which is found in Kashmir. Ebony wood gets stronger with water. Which means that the base of this structure automatically keeps getting stronger every passing minute since it is built on the banks of River Yamuna. At the same time, the wooden base automatically makes it earthquake proof. To add to the caution, all the minarets of the structure also lean outwards so that in case of any natural calamity, the minarets will never fall on the structure but outwards.
The monument is so beautiful, we could have stood there and stared at it for hours on end. But the time restrictions beckoned us and we had to move on. We drove on until Jhansi on this day. The claim to fame of this route was that we crossed three states - Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh - on this day. :)
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| Chilling at the Taj Mahal |
We wanted to reach Saagar in Madhya Pradesh. But the road conditions were extremely bad. Also, we were quite confused about the route . Two routes were suggested to us, which would take us to Nagpur faster: via Saagar and via Shivpuri. But we couldn't decide which one to take. So, we decided to rest our confusaddled minds and bodies in Jhansi and move ahead the next day. We stayed at Apna guesthouse in Ivory chowk, Jhansi.
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