When I visited India in January 2014 I figured a trip to the Taj Mahal was a must. I had seen so many pictures and I wanted to actually be there. So I booked a flight from Southern India (warm) to Jaipur (cold) and made my way east to Agra.

And there it was... The Taj... As seen before on all those pretty pictures. But after spending some time on the site, looking at the architecture, the gardens, the interior of the Taj, ... I felt a sort of emptiness creeping up. Being there didn't add anything to what I had already seen on pictures. I actually think it reduced the value of the site to me. I asked myself why, and I came up with a few reasons:

• Build for Show
  The Taj looks great on post cards, but to me the details are lacking. The garden's aren't great, the surrounding buildings or the interiors neither. I have been to Cordoba and the Alhambra and those buildings are on a whole different artistic level.
• Purpose
  This is a site labelled a monument of love to the emperor's dead wife. To me, though, this felt like a monument to the greatness and power of the builder, not his deceased wife. The site did not invoke any sense of mourning about a lost one in me. Contrast that with Humayun's Tomb in Delhi where I really felt like a lost one was gone.
• Purpose Continued
  As you may also read his wife died giving birth to the emperor's child. It was their 14th child! Having that many children would even be dangerous in today's times, let alone 17th century India. A loving husband could have considered some form of birth control. Sorry, that I don't find that very romantic.
• Surroundings
  Agra was like the worst city I visited while in India. The river is basically toxic waste. The neighborhood run down... While this has little impact on the OUV, it doesn't improve the overall experience neither.

A little later a friend of mine also went. Before going he asked me about it and I told him about my reservations. I also told him that I didn't wanna be the reason why he never went, so he should go. So he went. And he agreed with me.

Going to Agra, though, was still a treat as I also visited Fatepur Sikri and Keoladeo National Parks, two sites I enjoyed greatly.