“The Taj Mahal shows three faces,” says Nicholas Wapshott, a British writer, journalist, and father. “In the early morning, it is floating in mist, as though sitting on clouds, like a heavenly place. In the middle of the day, the heat is searing, and it’s crowded. You see the Taj Mahal flat on. In the evening, or if you’re lucky enough to be there during a full moon, the white-marble building glistens and shimmers. Once children see the Taj Mahal, they will constantly look at the setting of any building relative to the time of day. It will change the way they see all other buildings from then on.”
A UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the new seven wonders of the world, the Taj is the icon of India. Even children cannot help but set their expectations high for a visit.
Wapshott’s son Oliver, 21, learned about the Taj as a young boy. When his mom, Louise Nicholson, author and lifelong India specialist, returned to London from trips to India, she shared photos and stories with him.
“From the time he could speak, he always called it the ‘Haj Matal’ and drew it at school when everyone else’s favorite building was Buckingham Palace or Big Ben,” his mother recalls.
