Ninety seconds on Taj Mahal
Under the dome stand the two cenotaphs, and a carved marble screen breaks the light around them. Get inside early, before the queue for the mausoleum forms, and you can watch the pattern move.
Security runs separate lines for Indian and foreign visitors, and past it the path leads to the red sandstone gateway, where the dome first appears framed in its arch. From there you walk beside the long reflecting pool to the marble platform. Touts offering themselves as guides work the queue outside; an approved guide carries an identity card, so ask to see it. The Taj Museum inside the complex is free and opens from ten to five. For a sunset view of the dome from outside the walls, go to Mehtab Bagh. On the full moon night and the two nights either side, the complex reopens from eight until midnight for eight batches of 50 visitors, half an hour each, with phones banned.
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