Agra Travel Guide: The Taj Mahal, Mughal Tombs and How to Plan Your Days

Agra's monuments follow the Yamuna. The Taj Mahal and Agra Fort stand 2.5 km apart on one bank; across the river are Mehtab Bagh, facing the Taj, and an older run of tombs and gardens, the Baby Taj, Chini ka Rauza and Ram Bagh. Akbar's tomb is at Sikandra on the Delhi road, and Fatehpur Sikri lies 37 km west of the city.

Taj Mahal

Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal between 1631 and 1648 as a mausoleum for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, on the south bank of the Yamuna; UNESCO inscribed it in 1983. The white-marble tomb stands with a mosque, a guest house and a formal charbagh garden with reflecting pools. It opens 30 minutes before sunrise and closes 30 minutes before sunset, and on Fridays it is shut to sightseers, with the mosque open only for prayers. Tickets are sold on the Archaeological Survey of India's online portal and at the Eastern and Western Gates. Our Taj Mahal sunrise tour is timed to the opening, when the light is softest and the crowds smallest.

Agra Fort

Akbar rebuilt Agra Fort in red sandstone from 1565, and Shah Jahan later added palaces in white marble. Inside its 2.5 km of ramparts are the Diwan-i-Aam and Diwan-i-Khas, the halls of audience, the Jahangir Mahal, Khas Mahal, Sheesh Mahal and Moti Masjid, and the Musamman Burj, where Shah Jahan spent his last years, with a view down the river to the Taj. You enter by the Amar Singh Gate, where licensed guides and audio guides are available. The fort is a World Heritage Site in its own right, and because it opens every day, it is the natural plan for a Friday.

Mehtab Bagh

Directly across the Yamuna from the Taj Mahal, Mehtab Bagh, the Moonlight Garden, was first laid out by Babur and later aligned by Shah Jahan with the Taj. The district administration calls it the finest place to view and photograph the Taj, especially at sunset, and it is a quieter alternative to the crowds on the southern bank. The restored charbagh has fruit trees and paths but no food stalls, so carry water. It is about 8 km from Agra Fort by road, over the Yamuna bridge, and it is open every day, Fridays included.

Itimad-ud-Daulah, the Baby Taj

Empress Nur Jahan built this riverside tomb for her father, Mirza Ghiyas Beg, between 1622 and 1628. It was the first Mughal building faced entirely in white marble and the first to use pietra dura inlay extensively, which is why it is called the Baby Taj, a forerunner of the Taj Mahal. Its marble jali screens and inlaid stone reward a slow look, and it sees far fewer visitors than the big monuments. It stands on the left bank about 4 km from Agra Fort, on the Aligarh road, and opens every day.

Chini ka Rauza and Ram Bagh

Two smaller monuments complete the circuit on the far bank. Chini ka Rauza, 1 km north of the Baby Taj, is the tomb of Allama Afzal Khan, a poet-scholar who served as Shah Jahan's prime minister, built around 1635; the district describes it as the only monument in Agra faced entirely in Persian glazed tiles, and their blues still show on the river front. About 3 km further on, Ram Bagh was laid out by Babur around 1528 and is regarded as the oldest surviving Mughal garden in India, with terraced walks, water channels and pavilions above the river.

Akbar's Tomb, Sikandra

Akbar began his own mausoleum, and his son Jahangir completed it in 1613. It stands in a 119-acre charbagh at Sikandra, about 10 km from the city centre on the Agra–Delhi highway: a five-storey pyramid of sandstone and marble behind an ornate gateway whose decoration mixes Hindu, Islamic and Persian motifs. Blackbuck graze in the gardens, which suit families with time to wander. The tomb of Mariam-uz-Zamani, Akbar's Rajput empress, is 1 km away, and the Guru ka Taal gurdwara is nearby. Like Agra's other monuments apart from the Taj, it is open every day from sunrise to sunset.

Fatehpur Sikri

On a rocky ridge 37 km west of Agra, Fatehpur Sikri is the red-sandstone city Akbar founded in 1571 and kept as his capital for little more than a decade; it is a World Heritage Site and survives remarkably complete. The 54-metre Buland Darwaza leads into the Jama Masjid, whose courtyard holds the white-marble tomb of the Sufi saint Sheikh Salim Chishti, and the palace area has the Panch Mahal, Diwan-i-Khas and Jodha Bai's Palace. Battery buses run from the car park to the gate, and the district advises using licensed guides only. Our Fatehpur Sikri trip from Agra takes roughly three to four hours including the drive.

Sadar Bazar, Kinari Bazar and Agra's crafts

Agra's own craft is the inlay of marble and soft stone that decorates its monuments, and UP Tourism also lists leather goods, brassware, carpets, jewellery and zari embroidery. The main shopping streets include Sadar Bazar, Kinari Bazar and Raja-ki-Mandi, along with Shilpgram, beside the Taj's Eastern Gate. Agra is known for its sweets too: petha, made from ash gourd, and gajak, and for salty dalmoth. Our guide to Sadar Bazaar has more on the city's busiest market street.

October to March is the season. IMD's 1991–2020 averages for Agra put January days at about 22°C and nights at about 7°C, and December at 24°C and 8°C, so a dawn visit to the Taj needs a warm layer. Fog is the winter risk: the same table counts about five foggy days in January and between four and five in December, enough to veil the marble at sunrise and delay trains and flights, so leave a spare morning. February and March warm to 26–32°C. From April the heat builds to an average high of 42°C in May and 41°C in June, when sightseeing is best kept to the early morning. The monsoon reaches Uttar Pradesh in the second half of June and withdraws by about 10 October; July and August are the wettest months, with about 246 and 199 mm. UP Tourism holds Taj Mahotsav every February, from 18 to 27 February.

By air: most visitors fly into Delhi. Agra's own airport, a civil terminal at the Kheria air force station 13 km from the Taj, has few flights.

By train: Agra Cantt, 6 km from the Taj, is the main of the city's five stations. From Delhi, the Gatimaan Express takes 100 minutes from Hazrat Nizamuddin and runs every day except Friday, the day the Taj is closed; the New Delhi–Rani Kamalapati Shatabdi runs daily. A Vande Bharat Express links Agra Cantt with Banaras six days a week.

By road: Delhi is about 200 km away (UP Tourism gives 203 km), most of it on the six-lane Yamuna Expressway, and the district administration allows four to five hours depending on traffic. Jaipur is 237 km, about four hours, and Gwalior 118 km. If you only have a day, our Agra day trip from Delhi covers the Taj and usually Agra Fort, 12 to 14 hours door to door by road, or less by train.

One full day and a night cover the main sights; two days let you add Fatehpur Sikri and the riverside tombs without rushing.

Day 1: the Taj Mahal as the gates open, Agra Fort in the late morning, the Baby Taj, Chini ka Rauza and Ram Bagh across the river after lunch, and Mehtab Bagh for sunset.

Day 2: Fatehpur Sikri in the cool of the morning, as there is little shade, and Akbar's tomb at Sikandra on the way back, or carry on west towards Bharatpur, 21 km beyond Fatehpur Sikri, and Jaipur.

On a Friday, swap the Taj for Agra Fort and the other monuments, which stay open. Mathura and Vrindavan, under 60 km away, make a day of temples: see our Mathura & Vrindavan travel guide. Our Golden Triangle tour builds in a night in Agra for the sunrise visit, and all our routes through the city are on our Agra tour packages page. To plan onward, see our guides to Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Jaipur.

No petrol or diesel vehicle may come within 500 m of the Taj: free battery buses and paid golf carts run from the Shilpgram parking at the Eastern Gate and from the Western Gate parking. Auto-rickshaws and taxis in Agra are unmetered, so agree the fare first, and Agra Fort has a metro station beside it. On our tour packages, a private car and driver are part of the trip.

At the Taj, eating and smoking are not allowed, and nor are drones, tripods, phone chargers or headphones; keep bags small, as cloakrooms are at the gates, and note that photography is forbidden inside the main mausoleum. At night viewing, phones are banned, though a still camera is allowed after the security check. Hire only approved guides who show their identity cards, at the Taj and at Fatehpur Sikri alike.