Mehtab Bagh: Best Taj Sunset View, Timings & Fees 2026

Once you have stood in front of the Taj Mahal, the next best thing you can do is cross the river and look back at it. Mehtab Bagh is the garden that does exactly that. It sits directly opposite the Taj on the far bank of the Yamuna, aligned with it, and at sunset the white marble turns gold and reflects in the garden's pool while barely anyone is around. It is the calm counterpart to the crowds at the main gate, and it is where I send people who want the photograph everyone else missed. Here is how to time it.

Mehtab Bagh is open from sunrise to sunset, roughly 6 AM to 6 PM, every day of the week. Like Agra Fort and unlike the Taj Mahal, it does not close on Fridays, so it is another good use of a Friday in Agra. The ticket counter shuts about half an hour before the garden does. For the view this page is really about, aim for the last hour before sunset, or come at sunrise for a quieter, mistier version of the same scene.

Fees are set by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and were as follows as of July 2026. They are a fraction of the Taj Mahal's, which is part of the appeal.

Tickets are sold at the gate. As of 2026 there is no official online booking for Mehtab Bagh, so buy at the counter on arrival. Confirm the current rate before you travel, since ASI fees change.

Mehtab Bagh gives you the Taj from about 300 metres across the water, framed and uncrowded, with the octagonal pool in the garden set up to catch its reflection. Sunset is the headline: the last hour of light warms the marble and the sky behind it, and the garden empties out. Sunrise is the quieter alternative, often with river mist. Either way, plan an hour to an hour and a half here, or closer to two if you are a photographer working the light. This pairs naturally with a sunrise visit to the Taj Mahal itself: the monument up close in the morning, the wide view from here in the evening.

Mehtab Bagh, the 'moonlight garden,' is a Charbagh, the four-quadrant Mughal layout, laid out as a square of about 300 metres a side and aligned precisely with the Taj Mahal opposite. It was the last of eleven gardens the Mughals built along this stretch of the Yamuna, with Ram Bagh the first. At its centre is a large octagonal tank, and originally a tower stood at each corner, though only one survives. Because it lies on the river's flood plain, parts of it go under water in the monsoon, which is one more reason the cooler, drier months are the time to come.

You will hear that Shah Jahan planned a second mausoleum here for himself, a mirror image of the Taj in black marble, joined to the white one by a bridge across the river. It is a good story and a popular one, but historians treat it as legend rather than established fact. Excavations at Mehtab Bagh turned up the remains of a garden and a reflecting pool aligned with the Taj, not the foundations of a black tomb. What is real is just as good: a garden built to view the Taj, exactly as you use it today.

Although Mehtab Bagh sits directly across the river from the Taj Mahal, reaching it means going around by the bridge, so it is about 7 km by road, roughly a 20-minute drive by taxi or auto-rickshaw. From Agra Fort or the Taj it is a short, easy hop, which is why it slots neatly into the end of an Agra day. From Delhi, you reach it as part of an Agra trip, about 230 km on the Yamuna Expressway.

Carry a photo ID; foreign visitors need a passport. Tripods and drones are not allowed, and large bags and food are best left behind, with security checks at the gate. Photography by hand is fine and is the whole point of coming. Wear comfortable shoes for the garden paths, and bring water and sun cover in the warmer months, since the garden is open and shade is limited.

We are Experience My India, and we build Mehtab Bagh into trips as the evening bookend to a sunrise at the Taj, or as the reason to stay a night in Agra rather than rush back to Delhi. We handle the timing so you arrive for the best light, and the short transfer across the river. For everything else worth seeing in the city, start at the Agra hub, and for the season with the clearest skies, see the best time to visit guide. See live prices on our Delhi Agra tour packages, or message us on WhatsApp for a quote.