The Taj Mahal

These past 6 months I've been to a bunch of famous landmarks all over the world: the Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the remains of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, Kathmandu's Durbar Square etc, but nothing was quite as amazing as the Taj Mahal. Walking in was totally breathtaking.
It was built in 1632 by Emperor Shah Jahan for his wife, after she died giving birth to their fourteenth child. It took 20 years to complete, and soon after it was finished, the emperor's son put him under house arrest in Agra Fort, which was across the river.
I try to (unintelligently) explain all of this in the following video:



It costs $.50 for Indians to get into the Taj and $17 for non-Indians. We went twice because the first time we took so many pictures that it closed before we actually got inside the mausoleum. In order to protect the monument, only cars with electric motors are allowed within a certain distance of the Taj Mahal all the way around. This is good because it will allow it to be preserved for generations to come, but bad because then you have to walk, and the touts in Agra are out of control. Every time we got anywhere near the Taj Mahal, we would be surrounded 360 degrees with guys trying to get us to buy Taj Mahal snowglobes, magnets, keychains, Heena sets, postcards, and trying to get us to go into their shop. One kid would somehow FIND us every time we were anywhere in the area and beg us to come see his shop. He even asked us to go to the movies with him and his girlfriend! Haha!

Later, we went to Agra Fort, where the Emperor was put under house arrest. This was the hottest day the entire time we were in India. I think it must have been about 120 degrees. We could barely move.