Agra

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Agra was the Mughal capital for much of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it is where Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal, the white marble tomb of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. My first look at the city was from a car window on the evening of September 19, 2022. I spent the next day at its two great monuments: the Taj Mahal in the morning, under a gray sky,, then Agra Fort in the afternoon rain. From the fort’s terraces, the Taj is in view across the Yamuna, which is the view Shah Jahan is said to have had in his last years, when his son Aurangzeb kept him a prisoner in the fort. That evening, I left for Jaipur by way of Fatehpur Sikri.

Photos from Agra

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  A terrace in Agra Fort, wet from the afternoon rain.

  2022 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

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  The Taj from Agra Fort, the view Shah Jahan is said to have had in his last years.

  2022 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

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  My first look at Agra, from the car.

  2022 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

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