India: The Taj Mahal

Of course, you can't go to India and not see the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan's monument to his beloved wife Mumtaz who died giving birth to their fourteenth child. As you would expect, security around the Taj is tight, so tight that even Michael's sketchbook and paints had to be left at the gate.
The marble tomb is so often photographed alone, that it was a surprise to enter through the huge red sandstone arch and see the two flanking buildings also of sandstone.





We arrived just after dawn and watched as the mists rising from the grounds and the river below enveloped the building in a mystical haze. Unfortunately, our photographs look no different from thousands of postcards and other images taken of this amazing place.