December 7th, 2011 by admin

If you travel to India to see the Taj Mahal in Agra, you should be prepared for crowds of tourists no matter the time of day or night. At night guards herd groups of tourists through the gates leading to the famous monument, and bright lights glare down on you as you walk toward a stone platform overlooking the grounds and peer out across the gardens toward the great building.

Once the tour groups reach this point, though, the guards will kill the lights in a carefully orchestrated show, and the moonlight will reveal the ephemeral glow of the pearly shrine. In the distance you can hear the thumping of modern music and see the city lights, but inside the gates, the Taj Mahal will appear serene and bathed in silence, evoking another time.