Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

After a few months with an architectural research group at school, I found myself on a team with a grant to study the Mughal mausoleums in Agra and Delhi for a month in the summer. We were tasked with measuring the details and proportions of Akbar's Tomb, Itmad-ud-Daula's funeral complex, and the Taj Mahal. After a month, my teammates and I found, between each of our analyses, that there really is something special about the "Tribute to Love." Academic or not, any tourist or pilgrim to the Taj Mahal monument knows that Shah Jahan wanted time to reflect on his lost love, and the illusion of a paradise on Earth couldn't be better. This photo taken of one of my teammates during a break in the shade captured the essence of the Taj experience best because most visitors really only experience the tomb for a few brief, fleeting moments in a day and move on - not far off from the meeting of star-crossed lovers.