Taj Mahal – Things to know before Visit – Smart Travel Tips

The postcard picture of Taj Mahal does not adequately convey the legend, the poetry and the romance. Taj Mahal means "Crown Palace" and is in fact the most well preserved and architecturally beautiful tomb in the world. It is best described by the English poet, Sir Edwin Arnold, as "Not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the proud passions of an emperor’s love wrought in living stones." It is a celebration of woman built in marble and that’s the way to appreciate it. 

The Taj Mahal is the best-known building in the world and arguably the most beautiful. The architecture is sublime but it is the story that the stones embody that draws over seven million visitors each year. 

To make your visit to Taj Mahal hassle free and memorable, here are few things to know before planning your trip,

1. Know what you Can/Cannot Carry

Security at the Taj Mahal is very strict. What you can and can’t bring into the tomb complex often depends on who is operating the rather chaotic airport-style security at the entrance gates (there have been instances where mobile phones are not allowed).

Leave big bags and daypacks in your hotel, or with your driver, and carry only a small bag containing essentials. You are allowed to bring in one camera and one mobile phone per person. Video cameras are generally not allowed though sometimes you can pay an extra fee for these at the ticket desk. 

Banned items include anything edible including sweets, headphones, mobile chargers, other electrical items including iPads, pens of any kind, torches, knives and camera tripods. These rules are strictly followed here unlike other places of India. They know the importance of this monument for which we are proud about.

2. Hop into an E-vehicle

To protect the Taj Mahal from further pollution, motor vehicles are not allowed within 500 metres of the complex. There are three entrances: the West, South and East Gates. The East Gate provides the easiest access from most hotels. Drivers must drop visitors in the Shilgram Parking which contains the ticket office which is on the right after going through the entrance gate. (Note that some hotel concierge desks sell tickets to avoid queuing here.)

Show your entry ticket to pick up a free bottle of water and shoe covers from the street-side kiosk next to the car park entrance. Electric carts and buses offer a transfer service to the East Gate itself. If the queue is long, you can walk and reach in 15 minutes or hop into a cycle rickshaw for Rs 50  which can be negotiated down from the ask of Rs 100.

The Taj tomb complex is wheelchair accessible too. Ask for it at the security desk.  

3.  Tips to Avoid the queues

To see the Taj Mahal with the fewest people, it is best to arrive at the West or East Gates at 6.30am in winter - half-hour before it opens. (The South Gate doesn’t open until 8am). Get here early for some magnificent picture of Taj Mahal without crowd. Trust me it is a rare sight.

On reaching the East Gate, you will find four lanes leading to security: foreign women, foreign men, local women and local men. You may get into the respected like you belong to.

Joining the queue at 7am can mean a wait of 30 minutes to reach security as a foreigner. If you don’t want to get up that early - or it is a really foggy morning - the queue is often shorter around 8.30am after the first rush to get in. 

4.  Tips on Getting a grip on layout

The tomb complex is easy to navigate. Most visitors spend three hours here. All three entrance gates leads to a large arcaded forecourt where, in the past, visitors would dismount from their horses and Baggis. As you pass beneath the Great Gate, there’s a strong sense of passing from the bustling world of the city to the serene world of Taj. 

Set in a symmetrical Persian-style garden with lawns and waterways divided by wide paths, the mausoleum (Tomb Area) itself is flanked by two almost identical buildings: a mosque and an assembly hall. On the left-hand-side there’s also a small museum containing plans for the original construction.

A big crowd is always found around what’s now known by everyone as the Princess Diana Bench which is situated on the far side of the pool on a platform above the central water channel.

5.  Tips on Hiring a Guide?

For my friend, guides here are a distraction. They rattle off the history and statistics and don’t give time just to sit quietly and marvel at the building’s ethereal perfection.  He rents a handheld audio guide instead. These are available next to the Shilpgram ticket counter for Rs105. You must leave photo ID as security.  For me personally, I love to take a guide who explains in some exciting facts plus takes us around with ease. We can always have a me time after seeing him off. Guides are available for around Rs. 200 which is totally worth spending.

Local ‘professional’ photographers are also allowed into the complex and will want to take a set of photographs of you in the best spots. The quality of their own prints is generally poor (though some give out CD-roms). If you do want to use their services, bargain hard and ask them to use your own camera.

6.  Avoid the crowds

Arriving soon after dawn is the only sure way to avoid the crowds. From 10am until sunset tourists arrive in vast numbers and in large tour groups.

The mausoleum itself stands on a marble platform. Access is controlled to avoid overcrowding. Put on your shoe covers and join the left-hand-side queue. 

There is another queue to enter the mausoleum which contains marble cenotaphs to Shah Jehan and Mumtaz Mahal decorated with floral designs using semi-precious stones and surrounded by a carved marble screen. (These are memorial sarcophagi; their tombs are on a lower inaccessible level.)

The pietra dura inlaid stone work around the walls is astonishingly fine. However, it’s hard to see the detail in the gloom so use your phone’s torch. 

There are aggressive, whistle-blowing security guards in the tomb room to keep people moving along. The pushing and shoving worsens as the day progresses and sadly you need to watch out for pickpockets too. 

IF you wish to take some sunset  pictures of Taj (without crowd), take a car or rickshaw across the Yamuna River to the restored Mehtab Bagh gardens on the opposite bank. On the way visit the ‘Baby Taj’, the marble tomb of Itimad-ud-Daula, father of Mumtaz Mahal.

7.  Restoration and cleaning in progress

There is an on-going cleaning programme using Fuller’s earth to remove the yellowing effects of air pollution from the mausoleum. Currently three of the minarets are scaffolded and there are plans to clean the facade and dome at some point over the next two years. So don’t get disappointed if you fail to get some good photos from a particular angle.

8.  Tips on taking a Coffee break

On exiting the East Gate after your visit go across to Cafe Coffee Day for coffee, muffins, Sandwiches, clean loos and welcome air-conditioning. Don’t try any street food here, they are pathetically bad.

9.  How much does the entry cost?

Indian Adults – Rs. 40/-

SAARC Tourist – Adult Rs. 530/-

Foreign Tourist - Adults Rs 1000

Children under 15 free

You can buy Tickets online too

10. About Opening hours

East and West gates open dawn to dusk; South Gate opens 8am-5pm. 

Complex is closed on Fridays.

11. How to Reach Agra for Taj Mahal

Air:
Agra airport (AGR) is a military airbase 12.5 km away from the city.

Train:
Agra is located in between the main train lines from Delhi to Mumbai and from Delhi to Chennai. It is like a junction and this makes Agra easy to reach by train from almost anywhere. From Delhi, you can reach Agra by train in about 2-3 hours by Bhopal Shatabdi, Bhopal Express, Malwa Express, Gondwana Express, Jabalpur – Jammutawi Express, etc. 

There are also luxury trains that stop at Agra such as Palace on Wheels.
Agra has tree railway stations. The main one is Agra Cantt with the station code AGC. The second one is Agra Fort (AF) which is the oldest train station in India and trains to east and central India passes from this station. The third one a small station called Raja Ki Mandi, and Mahakoshal Express, Amritsar Express and Intercity Express.

Road: 
Agra is 204 km away from the capital Delhi and is on the crossroads of national highways 2, 3 and 11. Ground transportation from Delhi to Agra takes approximately 3.5 - 4 hours. Taxies and busses are available from Delhi to Agra. Busses are always more economical than train and air transportation. 

The main bus stations in Agra are Idgah and Agra Fort and there are scheduled, air-conditioned and luxury busses from Delhi, Jaipur, Gualior, Jhansi and Lucknow. 

Driving to Agra is also easy and comfortable with new modern highways.
From Delhi you can take the NH2 highway (200 km) , from Jaipur you can take number 11 ( 255km), from Gwailor the National highway which is 120 km and from Lucknow NH2 which is 285 km.

12. Some Myth about Taj Mahal

·      According to one of the myths, the construction is sinking and it is known that in spite of all the precautions, cracks were discovered in it just 4 years after its completion and that it was tilting towards the riverside. 

·      According to another myth a number of items such as diamonds, a gold leaf which covered the part of the dome, a pearl blanket etc that were originally a part of the Taj were stolen. 

·      It is also told that Shah Jahan got the hands of his sculptors and architects cut off so that they would never be able to build a monument as magnificent and beautiful as the Taj again and he even got their eyes pulled out so that they would never be able to witness anything bigger and more beautiful than the monument that they had built during their lifetime.

Different people have different views of the Taj but it would be enough to say that the Taj has a life of its own that leaps out of marble, provided you understand that it is a monument of love. As an architectural masterpiece, nothing could be added or subtracted from it.

You need patience to visit anything in India, and for Taj Mahal; you need little extra.