Agra/Taj Mahal

Our trip to Agra was one of the highlights of the trip for many of us since it gave us the opportunity to see some of the best tourist sites in India including the Taj Mahal. Agra was about a two hour train ride south of Delhi, but amazingly enough, still has a population nearly twice the size of San Francisco at 1.4M people. The golden age of Agra began with the Mughals (descendants from the Mongol warriors of Genghis Khan) and remained the capital of the Mughal Empire in the late 1500’s through the 1600’s. It is also home to three world heritage sites built during the Mughal Empire including the Agra Fort, Fatipur Sikri, and the Taj Mahal.

Our day started early at 6:00am at the train station in Delhi and we quickly learned how unreliable the trains can be in India. Our train was delayed by almost two hours but it gave us the opportunity to see first hand how everyday locals travel to and from work.


Upon arriving in Agra, we boarded a bus for a 45min ride out to our first stop Fatipur Sikri. Fatipur Sikri is a fortified palace built in red sandstone in 1571 and briefly shared imperial duties as a capital city with Agra during the Mughal Empire until being abandoned due to lack of water.

Our next stop was back to Agra to see the Agra Fort. Similar to Fatipur Sikri, the Agra Fort (built in 1565 and later remodeled) is a fortified palace built in Red Sandstone but in greater scale and contains mosques, assembly halls, and a dungeon. A massive wall approximately 70ft high and 1.5miles long surrounds the fort. It also includes a moat that served as a barrier to entry. One of the highlights at the Agra Fort was the view of the Taj Mahal which sits just down the river from the fort.

Our final and best stop of the day was the Taj Mahal. Completed in 1650 A.D., the Taj Mahal (one of the 7 wonders of the world) was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of the love of his life, his favorite Queen Mumtaz Mahal. This perfectly symmetrical monument took 22 years to build and required an army of over 20,000 workers, masons and jewelers to build and is set amidst landscaped gardens. It was an amazing site to see in person but perhaps even more amazing is that it sits in an area that is not very commercialized. You won’t find nice gift shops or restaurants surrounding the site, instead you see many small mom and pop shops along with street hawkers.
After spending several hours exploring the Taj Mahal grounds it was time for us to head back to Delhi. Unfortunately, we still had to deal with the unreliable trains in India and didn’t make it back to our hotel until 1am, which made for an incredibly long but exciting day.