Does the Taj Mahal Need a Ferris Wheel?

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  08.05.09 | 10:43 AM ET

Photo by Koshyk via Flickr (Creative Commons)

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.”


Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


1 Comment for Does the Taj Mahal Need a Ferris Wheel?

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!

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