Agra - the sites

Agra is where the Taj Mahal is, but there are other note-worthy sites as well. I'm not as astute as Erin at taking notes and informing about historical references, so please forgive me if I gloss over some of the more detailed information regarding the following. We will post more photos to Yahoo soon, but for now some of the better ones are below.

Agra Fort

Near the Taj Mahal is a 16th century fort, which is built of red sandstone and not much dissimilar to the fort in Aurangabad. Since is it mostly made of red sandstone, it is aptly named "the Red Fort" (go figure). It is quite stunning and has fairy tale-like palaces, where Shah Jahan lived. There are audience halls, both private and public, and a mosque. There's even a harem area, which unfortunately was quite empty of the women.

Baby Taj Mahal

The tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah was built prior to the Taj Mahal, and was actually the beginning of the architectural style which influence the Taj. It looks quite similar to the proper Taj, but it is much smaller. It was a bit quieter too, so it was nice to walk around it and we even sat for a while to chat in the garden area.

Blue Tomb

There is one more tomb which we visited, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. I'll let Erin come back and edit this part, but you can see the photos now.