HOW TO VISIT

The Taj Mahal opens at dawn. It is worth getting to the East Gate a half-hour beforehand (6.30am in winter) to be among the first to enter. Emperor Shah Jahan’s ethereal memorial to his beloved wife never fails to astonish. Guides are an unnecessary distraction. Instead sit on the lawn and marvel at its peerless perfection.

THE TAJ MAHAL

The Taj Mahal is the best-known building in the world and arguably the most beautiful. The architecture is sublime, but it is the story that the stones embody that draws seven million visitors each year. It is a monument to the great love between the Mughal emperor Shah Jehan and his queen, Mumtaz Mahal, who died after giving birth to their 14th child in 1631.

Over the next 14 years Shah Jehan employed the empire’s best architects, builders and craftsmen to design this vision in white marble, decorated with precious and semiprecious stones. A cleaning programme is under way to remove the yellowing effects of air pollution from the mausoleum. Three of the minarets are scaffolded and there are plans to clean the facade and dome at some point over the next two years.

The perfect plan

Before you set out Security at the Taj Mahal is strict. What you can

Agra Fort has more architectural treats for later in the day: a set of 16th-century palaces, pleasure gardens and audience halls from where the Mughals ruled their empire. Shah Jahan spent his last years in a marble prison here with a framed view of the Taj Mahal.

Jaipur: pink stone palaces

It’s a five-hour drive from Agra to Jaipur, the state capital of Rajasthan, but you get a break after only an hour at Akbar’s model palace at Fatehpur Sikri. It has astonishing verve and delicacy for a work in red sandstone. Another and can’t bring into the complex often depends on who is operating security at the gates. Carry only a small bag containing essentials, including only one camera and one mobile phone per person. Video cameras are generally not allowed.

Banned items include anything edible, headphones, mobile chargers, other electrical items and camera tripods. extraordinary site nearer Jaipur is the 9th-century Chand Baori in Abhaneri, one of the largest stepwells in India. Jaipur has a plethora of good heritage hotels but the Samode Haveli (telegraph.co.uk/ samodehaveli) gets my vote for its warm welcome, candlelit dining, and large characterful rooms (the glass mosaic Shish Mahal suite is worth the extra pricetag).

Take an early morning walk with Vineet Sharma ( jaipurwalks@ yahoo.com) or Virasat Experiences (virasatexperiences.com) dipping into neighbourhood temples and havelis and meeting all kinds of artisans. Accessing the complex Motor vehicles are not allowed within 500m of the complex. There are three entrances: the west, south and east gates. The east gate provides the easiest access from most hotels. Drivers must drop visitors in the Shilpgram Parking, which contains the ticket office. (Note that some hotel concierge desks sell tickets to avoid queuing here.)

Show your entry ticket to pick up a free bottle of water and shoe covers from the street-side kiosk next to the car park entrance. Electric carts and buses offer a transfer service to the east gate itself. If the queue is long, you can walk there in 15 minutes or hop into a cycle rickshaw for Rs50 (53p).

Avoiding queues On reaching the east gate, you will find four lanes leading to security: foreign women, foreign men, local women and local men. To see the Taj Mahal with the fewest people, it is best to arrive at the west or