The Charbagh Garden - Paradise in Four Parts

Photo: Yann; edited by Jim Carter, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Taj Mahal and Agra: A Self-Guided Visit, a free self-guided tour.

You are standing in the middle of the garden, beside the raised marble pool. The Mughals called this kind of garden a charbagh, a four-part garden. Wide walkways and water channels split it into four quarters, and each quarter is divided again. To Shah Jahan's court, the channels echoed the rivers of Paradise described in Islamic tradition, so the whole garden is a picture of heaven on earth.

The raised tank where you stand is known as al Hawd al-Kawthar, named for a pool of abundance promised in Paradise. On a calm morning the long channel ahead mirrors the tomb almost perfectly.

Notice something unusual: in most Mughal garden tombs, the tomb sits in the middle of the garden. Here it stands at the far end, on the riverbank, so nothing blocks your view of it from the gate. The neat lawns you see now are a later change; in Mughal times the beds were thick with fruit trees and flowers.

Getting here: Walk down the central walkway from the Great Gate toward the tomb; the raised marble pool marks the halfway point of the garden.

Did you know?: The marble bench on the gate side of the central pool became world-famous in 1992, when Diana, Princess of Wales, was photographed sitting on it alone.

Photo op: Crouch low at the edge of the long reflecting channel so the water fills the bottom of your frame and the tomb's reflection lines up beneath it.

Nearby: Benches line the walkways, but shade is limited to the trees along the sides of the garden.

More on Wikipedia: Charbagh · Taj Mahal

The Charbagh Garden - Paradise in Four Parts

Stops on this tour