Everyone knows the picture, and the odd thing is that the real thing still lives up to it. The Taj Mahal stands on the south bank of the Yamuna in Agra, a city of about one and a half million people, and was commissioned by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631 giving birth to their fourteenth child. Building took about two decades, with some twenty thousand workers and craftsmen, and the white marble came from Makrana in Rajasthan, hundreds of kilometres away. Inlay work of semi-precious stones decorates the tomb, and the calligraphy around the great arches is cleverly sized so that the letters seem equal in height from the ground.
What makes it more than a pretty building is its geometry. The tomb sits at the end of a long garden divided by water channels into four parts, and the four minarets lean very slightly outward, so that in an earthquake they would fall away from the tomb. The marble changes colour with the hour, pale pink at dawn, white at noon and golden at sunset. A legend says Shah Jahan planned a black twin across the river, but there is no evidence of it. He was later imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in the Agra Fort, from where he could see the tomb through a window.
Riding to the Taj is a lesson in Indian traffic. Agra is dense, with auto-rickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, buses, cows and pedestrians crowding the roads, and the horn is part of the language. Vehicles powered by fuel are kept away from the monument itself to protect the marble, so you park at a designated area and walk or take an electric shuttle. The Yamuna Expressway from Delhi is a fast, well-surfaced road, about three hours at moderate speed, and an excellent ride early in the morning before the trucks. In winter, fog can reduce visibility to a few metres, so check conditions.
The monument is closed on Fridays, when it is used for prayer at the mosque beside it, and tickets for foreign visitors cost far more than for Indians, which is worth knowing. Go at sunrise to avoid the worst of the heat and the crowds. Fuel is plentiful in Agra, and the city has plenty of hotels with secure parking. Try petha, a translucent sweet made from ash gourd, and a plate of parathas in the old bazaar. Be patient with touts and keep valuables close, but do not let that spoil the moment you walk through the gateway and see the dome for the first time.