Taj Mahal

 

Taj Mahal is an immense mausoleum of white marble located in Agra, Uttar pradesh, India. It was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal (Arjumand Bano Begum) in between 1631 and 1648. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage". In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

               The Taj Mahal is located on the right bank of the Yamuna River in a vast Mughal garden that covers nearly 17 hectares, in the Agra District in Uttar Pradesh. The Taj Mahal is considered to be the greatest architectural achievement in the whole range of Ind-Islamic architecture. Its recognized architectonic beauty has a rhythmic combination of solids and voids, concave and convex and light shadow. Also the color combination of lush green scape reddish pathway,work in marble and inlay with precious and semi precious stones fascinates tourists greatly.

               The uniqueness of Taj Mahal lies in some truly remarkable innovations carried out by the horticulture planners and architects of Shah Jahan. The tomb is the representation of the house of the queen in Paradise, and  its setting was based on the palace gardens of the great nobles that lined both sides of the river at Agra India, which added rich depth and perspective to the distant view of the monument.

              The most impressive in the Taj Mahal complex next to the tomb, is the main gate which stands majestically in the center of the southern wall of the forecourt. The gate is flanked on the north front by double arcade galleries. The garden in front of the galleries is subdivided into four quarters by two main walk-ways and each quarters in turn subdivided by the narrower cross-axial walkways, on the Timurid-Persian scheme of the walled in garden. The enclosure walls on the east and west have a pavilion at the center.

              The Taj Mahal is a perfect symmetrical planned building, with an emphasis of bilateral symmetry along a central axis on which the main features are placed.

Facts about Taj Mahal:

•  Taj Mahal means ‘crown of places'.
• Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor ShahJahan in the loving memory of his Beautiful wife Mumtaj Mahal.
• The Construction Cost of this Masterpiece Monument was around 320 Million Indian Rupees.
• Around 20000 people worked day and night for 22 years, Ustad AhmadLahauri was the architect of Taj Mahal.There were also about 1000 elephants used to transport the materials needed for construction. 
• It was rumored that Shah Jahan had the hands cut off from the people who worked on the Taj Mahal once it was complete. His reasoning was that nobody would ever be able to build such a beautiful building ever again. Nobody has been able to prove that this story is true. 
• Although the Taj Mahal was built for Mumtaz Mahal, Shah Jahan was also laid to rest in the tomb alongside his late wife.
• Every year Taj Mahal attracts around 3-4 million tourists with a huge number of International Tourist.