Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Pictures, first day in Agra, 2 of 3

The black marble bench in Agra Fort, where the king would sit and receive his visitors and noblemen. Boy, was that hot to sit on! Directly across from this was a nearly-identical white bench where the queen would sit.





Here's the queen's bench.








Agra Fort had obviously been built in a couple of different phases. The red buildings were first--the white buildings were Muslim places of worship added later, for either the Muslim wife and concubines, the Muslim noblemen who often visited and stayed in the fort, and/or for the Muslim people who would visit the fort.


The Baby Taj in Agra. We are so glad we visited this Baby Taj first, as we never would have been so awed by it if we'd been to the Taj Mahal first! This was such a quiet, peaceful, tourist site. While we were there only a couple of other visitors came, and we enjoyed a place of beauty away from the bustle of beeping traffic, the beseeching beggars and vendors, and the crowds on the streets.

Some of the artwork on the inside walls of the Baby Taj. One wonders how long it took the artists to carefully inlay this stone, piece by piece, and howthye got their designs to symmetrical.








Isn't this pretty? More inlaid stone designs inside the Baby Taj. The Baby Taj housed a few burial places of high-ranking government officials in a past dynasty.

No comments: