Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. Agra, India.

Today we woke up at 5am to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. It was simply breathtaking. First, a picture of the view from our fancy hotel room. We've been saving up for this trip for years so we splurged a bit.

The Taj Mahal was commissioned in the 16th century by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan for his third wife Mumtaz Mahal. It took 22years and 20,000 artisans to build. It's estimated it would cost $830million in today's dollars. 

Many of the Indian women we saw were very dressed up. 

From there we traveled to the Agra Fort, where the Emperor and his wife lived. The story goes that the Emperor's son imprisoned him in this Fort for the last years of his life, so he wasn't able to visit his masterpiece.

Our guide for the day-Anand. We figured he's been to the Taj Mahal 3,000 times, and he said it still amazes him.

Other lovely visitors to the Agra Fort.

These young men are par of an effort by the local government to clean up Agra.