The Taj Mahal has been described as the "most extravagant monument ever built for love" and we must admit that it deserves its spot as a wonder of the world and we were very impressed. The Taj was built by the Indian Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his wife who died giving birth to their 14th child. Her tomb (and Shah Jahan's) is under the dome. The structure itself took 20,000 people over 20 years to build. The building is perfectly symmetrical, they even built a huge replica of a mosque just to balance it out. However as you get closer and see the detailed marble work on the fine Koranic script and flowers that you can understand why the Taj is considered such a masterpiece. According the to Indian poet the Taj is "a teardrop on the face of eternity" and we hope it lasts that long because we were both extremely impressed.
Even in the shadows of such a majestic building our main memory of the Taj will always be the Indian tourist asking us to pose with their families and children (I shit you not 10+ families). We imagine we look as interesting walking around in our clothes in India as someone wearing ornate rural dress would in downtown Denver, but it's still a pretty strange experience. The one benefit is we are able to get some good pictures for ourselves with people we will never see again. We're just interested where photos of the goofy looking American tourists end up in the home...
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