Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the Yamuna river in Agra, India. The fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658) built this mausoleum in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631 while giving birth to their 14th child, Gauhara Begum. The mausoleum is the centerpiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex that includes a mosque and a guesthouse and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall. Inside the mausoleum is the tomb of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan himself.

Construction of the Taj Mahal, a mesmerizing structure that combines and expands the design traditions of Indo-Islamic and ancient Mughal architecture, began in 1632. The Taj Mahal was built using a variety of materials from many parts of India and Asia. It is believed that more than 1,000 elephants were used to transport the building materials. More than 20,000 laborers, painters, embroiderers and stonemasons were involved in its completion. In total, twenty-eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were set in the white marble of the majestic Taj Mahal building. While the mausoleum was completed in 1648, the construction of the surrounding buildings and landscaping of the garden was completed in 1653. The most striking feature of the magnificent architecture is its admirable pure white color and the onion-shaped dome covering the mausoleum. It has a magnificent appearance with all its features.

The Taj Mahal, which is as interesting for its history as it is for its appearance, welcomes more than 5 million visitors every year, including prominent foreign dignitaries. Because of this global attention and the millions of visitors it attracts, it has become associated with India and has become a symbol of it. However, it is also one of the most famous structures representing love in the world because of the reason for which it was built. It is also the best proof of Shah Jahan’s wealth and power.

in 1983 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for being “the jewel of Islamic art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of world heritage”. Considered by many to be “the finest example of Mughal architecture and a symbol of India’s rich history”, the Taj Mahal was one of the winners of the 2007 “New 7 Wonders of the World” initiative.

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