The Taj Mahal opens thirty minutes before sunrise and closes thirty minutes before sunset. Within those hours the building changes more than most visitors expect, and when you arrive shapes the whole visit.
The first hour
Between opening and about 8 am the marble runs pink, then gold, then white. The crowd is a fraction of what it becomes, the light is soft enough to photograph without blown highlights, and the platform in front of the mausoleum is empty enough to stand still on.
The cost is the alarm clock. From Delhi that means leaving at 2 am. From a hotel in Agra it means 5:30. Almost everyone who does it says it was worth it; almost nobody says it twice in one trip.
Mid-morning
From nine the coach groups arrive and the queue at the mausoleum entrance builds. The light goes hard and white. This is the worst time to come and, because it suits bus schedules, the time most people do.
Late afternoon
After four the crowd thins again and the marble warms. It is a good second visit if you are staying overnight — the building looks different enough from the morning to be worth the second ticket.
By month
October and November are the best combination of clear air and comfortable temperature. December and January bring fog that can hide the dome until ten or eleven, which catches out a lot of sunrise visitors. February and March are excellent. From April the heat makes anything after ten unpleasant, and by May the stone is too hot to walk on barefoot in the inner areas.
The one fixed rule
The Taj Mahal is closed every Friday for prayers. Plan around it, because no amount of planning gets you in.
