Taking care of the lawn

Every time I visit the Taj, I see different lawn manicuring techniques.

There's been the reel push lawn mower.

The cow mower.

And this time it was the scissors.

A visit to the Taj

Ah, the Taj.

It's not just a white marble building.

There's so much color and texture and life in that marble which has withstood centuries of monsoons.

It is, perhaps, the most photographed building on earth.

Around 10,000 people a day visit this famous building.

They are all over the Taj complex...

...People standing around posing...

...Or just lounging in the shade.

Three bonus bits of Taj trivia:

There are twenty-two domes on the gate at the East entrance to the Taj Mahal. The guides say this is because it took twenty-two years to build the complex.

The Koranic verses displayed are not painted, they are black onyx and are designed as an optical illusion: they get bigger the higher up they are so that the characters appear to be all the same size.
The minarets actually tilt outwards, so that optically, they don't appear to be caving in, and also, if an earthquake should ever make them crumble, they would not fall on the taj itself.

So many details. Click on the image below for a few photos.

Taj

Humayan's tomb

It is (apparently) a common mistake of children, but Humayan's tomb is not to be confused with the Taj Mahal.

And I would add another warning: That Humayan's tomb is not to be confused with Akbar's tomb.

So, keep that in mind...

The Taj

I visited the Taj Mahal this week, where I took a lot of pictures and where we wore our Taj-protecting-shoe-cover booties.

Oh, me. There were a lot of pictures to take--how exhausting.
And here are a few more of other things to see near the Taj.