Wah Taj… The Taj

It was another outing on Tuesday July 19th… While we planned to start the travel from New Delhi to Agra at 5am, the driver arrived late and we left an hour delayed. When we reached Taj Mahal, it was almost 11:30am and it was again a wrong time for any interesting photography. By the time we bought entry tickets and collected the audio guides, it was almost noon. It was a cloudy day and moving clouds kept on changing the lighting conditions. As professional photography requires a prior permission, I did not carry my tripod or 70-200mm f2.8L-IS lens. I had to rely on my EFS-17-55 in this trip.

Taj - Main Entrance This is the main entrance of Taj. It actually does a great job in hiding the great monument behind it. The walls on both side of this gate further helps in hiding any possible revelation of the Taj.

Taj - From inside Main Entrance
And once you walk in this gate, you get the visual surprise!

Taj - The Taj 02Taj - The Taj 01 And as you come out of the gate, it reveals it beauty for which it has been famous in the world.

Taj - Jim at first podium And it was perfect composition Jim provided to document his visit to Taj.

Taj - Naubat KhanaAs we started walking towards the mausoleum, we noticed a quite building Naubat Khana.The symmetry of the geometry is very noticeable.

A detouring from the front walking path revealed few interesting compositions of Taj…
Taj - The Taj 06Taj - The Taj 04Taj - From West South

And when we reached the second podium, real beauty of Taj was further revealed…
Taj - The Taj 03Taj - The Taj 05

And Jim was kind one more time to pose for me…
Taj - Jim at second podium 01

Its size and symmetry has made Taj a unique complex…Taj - Front fron Left Walkway

And everyone would want to get captured in front of it…
Taj - Photographer 01

ShoeRacksAfter depositing our shoes in shoe rack, we climbed the monument plinth… Even though it was cloudy day, the floor was hot to walk on… It is advisable to keep the shocks on or use the shoe covers…

Instead of walking in the mausoleum, the audio guide suggested us to first visit the Mehman Khana – The Guest House.
Taj - Mehman Khana 02

While it had a bad smell inside, the views of Taj from there were breathtaking…Taj - From Mehman Khana 01
Taj - From Mehman Khana 02
Taj - The Taj 07

Gorgeous entrance to the mausoleum…
Taj - Entrance 01
Taj - Entrance 02

Photography inside the mausoleum is prohibited and even though the security guards were not stopping people to take pictures, I did not take any pictures. As there was nothing interesting to see inside and it was stuffy, smelly and drenching, we came out of it from the rear door as soon as we could. The breeze outside was felt as if we entered an air-conditioned area.

Taj - Yamuna River
River Yamuna was full of (dirty) water but the view was spectacular.

Taj - North East Minarate
And one of the four minarets of Taj… It is said that the beauty and the visual balance of Taj is due to these minarets.

Taj - Mehman Khana
A view of Mehman Khana from Taj…

We then headed to the exit and on our way back to New Delhi.

Few years back, I had visited Taj with Darshan and Yogesh…
Taj - YDD

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