Just to the Left of the Moon: The Taj

Meet Mahmoud, our Agra guide and Taj expert and

our driver, Shyam, who'll be with us for the next week driving us all around.

Fortunately he won't be driving one of these

but an air-conditioned Toyota complete with

the evil eye banishing chilli garnish!

Today is a story of two halves, first up: the Taj Mahal - perhaps the world's most extravagant monument of love. Built in the mid 1600's by Shahjehan, it is a mausoleum to his beloved wife, Mumtaz.

The outer perimeters are constructed from red sandstone with white marble inlaid designs. Terry and I are stood in front of one of the three entryways, see the two lines of domes right on top?

Look, right here, see? Now count them, don't forget to double it for the front and back.

Now you'll know just how many years it took to construct the Taj - 22 years. The level of perfection demanded by Shahjehan nearly bankrupted the kingdom; so to prevent him from starting to build a black onyx version for himself his son, and heir, had him imprisioned at The Red Fort across the river. When his time eventually came he was placed along side his wife at the centre of the Taj.

Richly decorated, with symmetry at the heart of the design, it is hard to believe it was constructed so long ago. From the ceilings

and the inlay patterns that adorn the wall,

to the window grills and

and doors

and locks the level of workmanship was the very highest

and really very spectacular.

If you study the floor plan you'll see that we are just inside the main gate,

so all I have to do is turn around...

and there you see...The Taj.

Not being Royalty we have had to share the view with hundreds of others. But it's still impressive, don't you agree?

Want to see it closer up?

Here you are - Sorry about the restoration work, but that is necessary you see, to keep the white marble pristine white and clean.

The long lake is actually empty at the moment too because it needs regular maintenance and painting.

Their scoop and fling method seems to work a treat,

because despite the actual lack of water

it can be quite hard to tell that it isn't there at all!

Let's take a closer look at the impressive facade - it's not painted, but

twinkling in the sunlight are the precious jewels which have been sliced, shaped and sunk into surface to create the most intricate symmetrical patterns.

Every section of the Taj is adorned in memory of the dead wife.

Despite heavy restrictions on industry and polution levels the marble still needs to be cleaned.

This tower is being renovated. To whiten the marble they pack mud around the different sections and as it dries out any polution is absorbed, falling away when dried off. A kind of purifying face pack for historical sites!

To protect ( and I suspect to clean and polish it) visitors remove their shoes or, as we did, pop a pair of overshoes on our feet.

But with a floor made of marble and red sandstone, such as this, you don't want to damage it.

If you should tire of looking at all that marble then people watching is rather entertaining; especially the many groups of young lads - they do like the pose...watch out for more of their antics later on!