Does the Taj Mahal Need a Ferris Wheel?
Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 08.05.09 | 10:43 AM ET
The Telegraph’s Michael Kerr doesn’t think so. Kerr is unimpressed by the news that the Agra Development Authority is contemplating the addition of ropewalks, cable cars and a Ferris Wheel at the most famous mausoleum in the world, all in the name of “enhancing the visitor experience.” He writes: “The Taj Mahal, has, of course, long been a tourist trap, one of those sights that we can take in only as part of a swarm of camera-clicking visitors. Nearly three million people a year are drawn to visit it. Somehow, 360 years on, it is still surviving the swarm. The threat to it now has less to do with improvement than with greed, a greed that infantilises rather than enhances experience.”
Kat Buck 08.05.09 | 1:24 PM ET
I think this is absolutely disgraceful! How can turning somewhere like the Taj Mahal into a theme park possibly “enhance” the visitor experience? Surely it would put off the kind of people who currently go and visit it. Who would want a photo of the Taj Mahal with a Ferris Wheel and circus performers in the background? It’s a joke.
I visited the Great Wall of China a couple of years ago and was really disappointed to find a toboggan run, cable cars and bear pit at the entrance! It doesn’t enhance anything, it ruins thousands of years worth of history by turning it into a joke!
Send me the petition, I’ll be the first to sign it!