Day 10: 1 December – Agra

Today's blog is being guest-authored by S – let's just say that J has been otherwise disposed and was unable to visit the attractions of the day, which is a pity as they included the most famous of them all – the Taj Mahal.

Mr Solanki was my guide and he did a great job explaining the whole story – wife of Emperor Akbar dies having her 14th child in 19 years, Akbar is heartbroken and so commissions a mausoleum to represent not only love, but also their great partnership. As the Mughals had recently gained access to the white marble mines near Jodhpur, through a marital alliance, the architect Lahori was able to use white marble on a grand scale for the first time – and it is a 'wow' moment when you step through the East Gate and see the huge scale and pure whiteness of it, heightened by it being a misty morning.

The attention to detail and symmetry of the complex is remarkable – as is the fact the East India Company (Brits) tried to auction off the whole place for scrap marble.... of course later Brits put it to much greater use and to today there are people who queue up to have their photos taken, using just the same poses as Princess Diana when she needed to make a point about her marriage. You can decide for yourself whether my pose is a good copy or not – I think, despite Diana managing to visit on a day when there were no school parties, the similarities are remarkable.

We then moved on to the Agra Fort which was the prison-home of Akbar for the last eight years of his life, his youngest son having forced him to hand over the throne during a period of illness. The fort is across the Yamuna river from the Taj Mahal and from there Akbar could look out from the fabulously beautiful Jasmine Pavilion onto his wife's mausoleum – apparently anyway because the mist made it impossible for me to see.

The whole complex is really a number of interconnected palaces surrounded by fortifications with the standard public and private meeting spaces of the Emperor, harem (just the 500 ladies in this one), stables and pleasure areas, always incorporating water in some way, which is somewhat ironic here as there is a huge great river just outside, but it is in keeping with the high regard in which the Mughals held water, coming from arid central Asia as they did.

Talking of waterworks, it is hoped that J will be back on duty tomorrow.....