Arrived in the city of Agra, in the State of Uttar Pradesh, India and home of the Taj Mahal and two other world heritage sites with the temperature somewhere in the 30's and very high humidity. Thousands of people, of course, in the railway station and we are looking for someone whom we have never met! He is looking for a white man and his wife so his task is easier than ours as we appear to be the only two white skinned people here!
Eventually we meet up with him, his name is Prabhat, and he is a friend of Prem James. (Prem seems to know everybody in India and that's over a billion people!) Prabhat is our guide and has organised a driver for us. First stop is a cup of coffee and so we arrive at the Agra Sheraton, no less and have three expensive cups of coffee in more luxurious surroundings. (See photo) Greeted by huge doorman in traditional dress and waited on hand in foot. Coffee was almost £1 a cup which is scandalous by Indian standards!

After coffee we go off to see the Taj Mahal. Words cannot describe this building. It truly is one of the 7 wonders of the world. Perfectly symmetrical and in glowing white marble it is breathtaking. Built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as the final resting place for his favourite Queen, Mumtaz who died in childbirth, (giving birth to her fourteenth!). It took 20,000 workers 22 years to complete.

Prabhat took our photo sitting on the bench where Lady Di had that famous picture taken alone outside the Taj Mahal.

With our entrance fee, (25 Rupees for Indians, 750 Rupees for foreigners!) we got a free guide, who was first class. The four minarets, although they look vertical, (they are a little distorted in the picture having been taken with a cheap camera!) do in fact incline outwards at 3 degrees. This is to ensure that should they collapse they will fall away from the building and not into it! (Fiendishly clever, these Persian architects!)

All the marble panels were, of course done by hand and if a mistake was made the whole huge panel had to be scrapped and another one done!

from the Taj can be seen the Red Fort. It was here that the Emperor was eventually imprisoned by his son, Aurangzeb, in a bid for power. (In an extreme example of sibling rivalry Aurangzeb also bumped off his brothers just to make sure they didn't stand in his way of becoming King.)

From his prison in the Red Fort the old King could look every day at the Taj Mahal.

After leaving the Taj Mahal, we headed for the Red Fort. (See Lindsay and Lilian's Blog)