The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the southern bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall. In 2007, it was declared a winner of the New 7 Wonders of the World initiative.
About Taj Mahal in brief
The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the southern bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall. In 2007, it was declared a winner of the New 7 Wonders of the World initiative. It is regarded by many as the best example of Mughals’ architecture and a symbol of India’s rich history. The main chamber houses the false sarcophagi of Mumtazi Mahal and Shah Jahan; the actual graves are at a lower level. The TajMahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2020 would be approximately 70 billion rupees. The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. The most spectacular feature is the marble dome that sits close to the base, and accentuated by cylindrical spires that extend from the edges of the base walls to the edge of the tomb. The dome is nearly 35 metres high which is close in measurement to the length of the actual tombs in the main chamber and in the lower level of the building.
It sits on a square plinth and consists of a symmetrical building with an iwan topped by a large dome and finial. Four minarets frame the tomb, one at each corner of the plinth facing the chamfered corners, and the main entrance is framed by a huge pishtaq or vaulted archway with two similarly shaped arched balconies stacked on either side. In 1983, the site was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being \”the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage\”. It attracts 7–8 million visitors a year and in 2007, It was declared an official member of the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites for the first time. It has been named as a ‘World Heritage Site’ by the International Council of UNESCO in 2011, and has been designated a World Heritage site for the second time in 2012. It also houses the tombs of Shah Jahnal himself and his wife Gauhara Begum, who died on 17 June 1631, while giving birth to their 14th child. The imperial court documenting the love story held as the inspiration for the Taj. Mahal was completed in 1643, but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. Specific inspiration came from successful Timurid and Mughale buildings including the Gur-e Amir, Humayun’s Tomb which inspired the Charbagh gardens and hasht-behesht plan of the site.
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This page is based on the article Taj Mahal published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 14, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
