Mehtab Bagh: The Taj Mahal from the Other Bank

Mehtab Bagh is a Mughal garden on the north bank of the Yamuna, laid out in the early 1500s and perfectly aligned with the Taj Mahal on the opposite side. That alignment is not a coincidence and it predates the Taj: the garden was already there, and Shah Jahan built his tomb to face it.

There is a long-running story that he intended a second Taj here in black marble, a mirror of the white one, joined by a bridge. There is no evidence for it and most historians treat it as legend, but it is told to every visitor, so you may as well hear it from someone who says so.

What the garden actually gives you is the one view of the Taj that includes the river, the whole building uninterrupted, and no crowd standing in it.

Go for sunset. From Mehtab Bagh the Taj faces you and the sun goes down behind your shoulder, so the marble takes the colour rather than being flattened by backlight. Arrive about forty-five minutes before, which gives you time to walk to the riverbank and settle.

Now the honest part, because almost nobody mentions it. The Yamuna at Agra is often reduced to a narrow channel or a series of pools, and for much of the year there is no broad sheet of water to reflect anything. The photograph of the Taj mirrored in the river is a monsoon and post-monsoon photograph, roughly July to October, and outside those months you will more likely be looking across sand.

The view is still the best unobstructed view of the building anywhere. Just go knowing which photograph is available in your month, rather than discovering it at the fence.

Mehtab Bagh is about a kilometre from the Taj as the crow flies and around 10 to 12 km by road, because you have to cross the river upstream. Allow half an hour each way in traffic, more at the end of the day.

The usual shape is Taj at sunrise, Agra Fort and the Baby Taj in the middle of the day, Mehtab Bagh for sunset. That sequence works because the Taj is closed on Fridays and sunset here is the consolation on a Friday visit.

The garden closes at sunset, so there is no lingering into dusk. Do not plan a long dinner immediately after, because getting back across the river takes longer than the map suggests.

A guide adds little here; see hiring a guide in Agra for where one is genuinely worth it.