Today was the big day, the (supposed) highlight of the tour, our visit to the Taj Mahal. It did not disappoint. It is an astounding work of art. In the flesh it is more impressive than all the photos but what surprised Nina and I was the details and small scale decoration. The Taj building is made from a special Indian marble and all the decorations are formed from colored stone and semi-precious stones inset into the marble. In some of the decorations the insets are really small, of the order of 1 or 2 millimeters.

After the visit to the Taj, Nina and one other of the party went back to the hotel, both suffering from the early stages of a cold while the rest of us continued the days activities with a visit to Agra's Red Fort.

The Red Fort was the home of Emperor Shah Jahan who was responsible for the building of the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his first wife Mumtaz Mahal who died during her 14th pregnancy. The Red Fort gets its name from the red sandstone from which it is built.

Late in the day we got a chance to see the Taj from across the river, and perhaps more interestingly to see the life of the poor locals who actually make their living in and around the river.