From Delhi: All-Inclusive Agra Taj Mahal Same Day Tour

The severed-hands story is not true

You will be told, probably at the gate, that Shah Jahan had the hands of his craftsmen cut off so they could never build anything comparable. There is no contemporary evidence for it in any Mughal chronicle, court record or European traveller's account, and the imperial wage rolls show the same named master craftsmen working on later buildings.

The story appears in the nineteenth century, not the seventeenth.

A licensed guide will tell you that. Someone charging you two hundred rupees at the gate will tell you the other thing, because it is a better story.

The day

Early start from Delhi to get ahead of the traffic — the drive is about three hours on the expressway in a private car.

Taj Mahal first, and early is right: the marble is at its best in the first hours and the crowd builds steadily from nine.

Shah Jahan began it in 1632 after Mumtaz Mahal died bearing their fourteenth child. Twenty-two years, twenty thousand workers, marble from Makrana 400 km away.

Your guide covers the calligraphy cut larger as it rises so it reads evenly from the ground, the pietra dura flowers of dozens of inlaid stones, the minarets tilted outward so an earthquake would take them clear of the tomb, and the one asymmetry in the whole building.

Agra Fort

Akbar's red sandstone city of 1565 with Shah Jahan's marble inside it, and the Musamman Burj where Aurangzeb imprisoned his father for eight years with the Taj in view down the river.

Three options

An Agra-start guide only; car and guide from Delhi; or the all-inclusive day with tickets and meals.

Practical

Around six hours of sightseeing plus three hours of road each way.

The Taj is closed on Fridays. Entry is ₹1,300 a head for a foreign adult with the mausoleum, ₹650 at the fort, unless your option includes them.