Taj Mahal in Agra

Agra is a busy, dirty, smoggy city, but it contains the Taj Mahal and the grand Agra Fort. The Taj Mahal rises above the dirt and grime of Agra and seems almost to shine more brightly because of it. The construction of the Taj Mahal on a raised platform next to the Yamuna River makes it stand out even with the vast number of tourists that visit it each day. The Yamuna River peacefully flows by the Taj, but it is polluted, carrying a constant flow of plastic bottles and other debris. A German tourist that I was talking with thought that the debris were flowers floating down the river...it did look like that...if you suspended the reality. The smog gave the early morning light a gauzy mystical feel around the Taj which is even grander in person than in photos.