Taj Mahal: Timings, Tickets and What to Know

Timings, tickets and the three-hour rule

The ₹200 supplement is what lets you step onto the marble platform and into the mausoleum itself to see the cenotaphs. It is optional and almost everyone should take it — without it you see the building from the garden only.

The three-hour limit is measured from entry and is enforced at the exit gate. In practice two hours is what most people use, and the clock only becomes a problem if you have come for photography and lose track.

Buy in advance. The gates are digital-payment only now, so the counter is both a queue and a payment problem if you arrive with cash.

Which gate, and when to arrive

There are three gates — East, West and South. East Gate is the one to use at sunrise: it is quieter than West, and the ticket office is a short distance from the gate itself rather than beside it, which catches people out.

West Gate is the busiest and the closest to the main Agra hotels. South Gate is small, opens later and is used mostly for exit.

Security screening is the real bottleneck at sunrise, not the ticket. Aim to be in the queue about twenty minutes before the gate opens — that queue position is the entire point of a sunrise visit, and it is why our sunrise guide sets the pickup against your travel month rather than a fixed hour.

What you cannot take in

Security is thorough and the list of prohibited items is longer than most visitors expect. Anything refused goes into a cloakroom, which costs you time at both ends.

Come with a phone, a camera, your ticket and your passport, and leave everything else in the car.

• Tripods and drones — not permitted, and no permit changes it
• Large bags, food and drink other than a water bottle
• Cigarettes, lighters, and anything electronic beyond a phone and camera
• Books, headphones and chargers are often refused
• Shoe covers are provided for the marble platform, or you remove your shoes

What to look at once you are inside

Most people photograph the building from the entrance and walk to it. The things worth slowing down for are closer.

The inlay work — parchin kari, or pietra dura — is semi-precious stone cut and set into marble, flowers and Quranic calligraphy at a scale you only see at arm's length. The calligraphy around the great arch is subtly enlarged as it rises so it reads as the same size from the ground.

Inside, Mumtaz Mahal's cenotaph sits at the centre under the dome. Shah Jahan's was added beside it after his death, off-centre, and it is the only asymmetry in an otherwise perfectly balanced building. The real graves are in a chamber below, closed to visitors.

The mosque on the west side and its mirror building on the east — the jawab, meaning answer — exist because Mughal symmetry required a matching structure even though only one of them functions.

Getting there, and how long to give it

Agra is about 230 km from Delhi — three to three and a half hours by road on the Yamuna Expressway, or one hour forty on the Gatimaan Express. Our Delhi to Agra guide compares every option with times.

Two hours inside the complex is the right budget for a first visit, plus twenty to forty minutes for security and the walk from the ticket office. Add Agra Fort and a meal and you have a full day.

If your only free day in Agra falls on a Friday, the monument is closed and there is no way around it. Our Friday guide sets out what the day looks like instead — Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri and the view from Mehtab Bagh across the river.