Agra, Taj Mahal

We live especially for the WOW!! moments on these trips, and we had two in the same morning in Agra.

The Taj Mahal is breathtaking. It's that simple. No wonder it's widely considered the most beautiful building on the planet.

It was built 350 years ago by a Mughal emperor for his favorite wife, who died in childbirth. They are both buried inside. Mostly white marble, it is perfectly symmetrical in virtually every dimension, and shows very sophisticated understanding of geometry (the four columns tilt outwards by 3 degrees so they don't appear to lean toward the building; the writings from the Koran that surround the doorways increase in size as they get higher, so they always appear the same size from below, etc.).

Inlaid in the marble are literally tons of semi-precious stones, some opaque, many translucent, but you can't even tell until you shine a flashlight directly on each stone. The early morning sunlight reflecting off the stones was beautiful. My best moments were 15 minutes simply sitting peacefully staring at the building. I could have stayed for hours.

Later in the morning we were taken shopping. On these trips, that often means very high end stores, such that if you buy anything, there are large commissions to be shared. In this case, it was the finest jewelry store in Agra.

The store was quiet, and we were shown around by the owner, himself. When it came to light that his brother lives in Columbia, MD, and his father was a 33rd degree Mason and his mother had been very active in the Eastern Star in New York (similar to my parents' experiences), a very firm rapport had been established, and he sent an associate to the vault.

It turns out that all of the Empresses' jewels were not buried in the Taj Mahal with her. She apparently still has some say in things, however, as I'll explain below.

This jewelry is mostly emeralds, with pearls and diamonds. It's 350 years old. It appeared in National Geographic 25 years ago (we saw the article and photos). It is literally priceless, and he has never even considered any offer from any individual or museum.


Fran got to wear it. The necklace, bracelet, and ring. It's surely worth tens of millions of dollars. She literally trembled. Here are the jewels, and here she is handing them back (the ring is still on her finger). And all 5 photos I took of her wearing the jewels just vanished from the memory card in my camera. Not kidding. They simply vanished. Perhaps the Empress was not happy. Perhaps I didn't see what I thought I saw. Perhaps the battery briefly failed. Perhaps it was other Karma. But I don't have a single image of Fran wearing the jewelry.

I retired the memory card and buried it in my luggage. I bought new ones, and will carry this one back to the U.S. to try to recover anything else that might still be on it. But somehow I'm not optimistic.