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| The Taj Mahal, India (Image by يسرا توكل from Pixabay) |
The Taj Mahal, India
The Taj Mahal, a Bewitching Marble Grave Monument in the North Indian City of Agra, is a Testament to the undying love of Mogul Shah Jahan for His Wife Mumtaz. Between 1631 and 1648, He built this Wonder in Memory of Her.
It is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, a masterpiece of Indo-Islamic architecture. The Mogul rule Shah Jahan had material for his building brought to Agra from all over Asia, transported by over 1,000 draught elephants. The Shah spared neither effort nor expense in creating a magnificent, everlasting monument to his great love.
Passing through the main gate, itself an impressive monument with 22 domes, one enters an earthly paradise. The entire complex, including the gardens, covers eight hectares. The monument itself, with its four gently tapering minarets, is in sublime architectural harmony with its guesthouse and mosque. Over 20,000 workers and artisans contributed to its completion.
The Taj Mahal is a masterpiece, both in terms of architecture and aesthetics. The enormous dome soars to a height of 59 metres, its corners flanked by four 40 metre tall minarets carefully positioned so as not to fall on the main building in case of an earthquake. Even more complex, from an engineering point of view, is the building's substructure, designed to bear the weight of the dome by distributing it throughout the entire building. A series of domes resting on smaller domes, each supporting another, as well as a clever system to regulate the level of groundwater below the surface, ensure that the Taj Mahal does not sink into the ground.
