Monday, January 19, 2009

Sites to See

Although we didn't make it to some of the really well-known sites in India, we did get to see some really neat places.

First, we went to the "Mini" Taj-Mahal. This place was built in replica of the real Taj Mahal. So I don't mess up the history of it, I am copying this caption from:
http://www.goworldtravel.com/ex/aspx/articleGuid.42ce12dd-4b3e-4975-b7d4-a726b67f6880/xe/article.htm

Both the famous Taj Mahal in Agra in north-central India,
and the lesser-known Bibi Ka Makbara, are monuments of love.
The original is the final resting ground of Mumtaz Mahal.
Her husband, Emperor Shah Jahan, had it constructed until
his favorite wife passed away in 1629.
The Mini-Taj is a tribute to a mother.
Prince Azam Khan, son of the Mugal Emperor Aurangzeb,
built the Bibi Ka Maqbara in 1679 to honor his mother Rabia Durani.
He modeled it on the original Taj Mahal.


I apologize for the low quality of pictures. Our camera had died that day so these are taken with the camera that is in our camcorder.
The next site to see if you ever in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India is the Ellora Caves. This time I am copying info from Wikipedia, which explains the random blue print. :)

Ellora represents the epitome of Indian rock-cut architecture.The 34 "caves" – actually structures excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills – being Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples and monasteries, were built between the 5th century and 10th century.

These were pretty impecible. They were all built from the top down and the detail is just amazing. They were also all painted and in some places you can still see the colors.




Many of the caves have jade in them- huge chunks of it.

And of course, one of the most fun things to see in India are the monkeys. They are so cute and friendly. We saw them mainly at the caves, but supposedly they are throughout India, similar to squirrels in America.


You could even feed them. They were so gentle and cute. :)

2 comments:

Julie said...

Hey,

Can't wait to see you tomorrow night! Bring pictures and lots of stories. Hopefully Teichler won't be mad that we are going to be talking!

Ange said...

How did I not know you were in India?? So cool! I love the pics!