Sheer poetry in marble. Majesty and magnificence, unrivalled.
The Taj Mahal, the one and only one of its kind across the world. The monumental
labour of love of a great ruler for his beloved queen. The ultimate realisation
of Emperor Shahjahan's dream.
One of the wonders of the world. From
1631 A.D., it took 22 years in the making. An estimated 20,000 people worked to
complete the enchanting mausoleum, on the banks of the Yamuna. For a breathtaking
beautiful view of the Taj Mahal, see it by moonlight.
The construction
of this marble masterpiece is credited to the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan who erected
this mausoleum in memory of his beloved wife, Arjumand Bano Begum, popularly known
as Mumtaz Mahal, who died in AH 1040 (AD 1630).
Her last wish to her
husband was "to build a tomb in her memory such as the world had never seen
before".
Thus emperor Shah Jahan set about building this fairytale
like marvel. The construction of Taj Mahal was started in AD 1632 and completed
at the end of 1648 AD.
For seventeen years, twenty thousand workmen are
said to be employed on it daily, for their accommodation a small town, named after
the deceased empress-'Mumtazabad, now known as Taj Ganj, was built adjacent to
it.
Amanat Khan Shirazi was the calligrapher of Taj Mahal, his name occurs
at the end of an inscription on one of the gates of the Taj.
Poet Ghyasuddin
had designed the verses on the tombstone, while Ismail Khan Afridi of Turkey was
the dome maker. Muhammad Hanif was the superintendent of Masons.
The
designer of Taj Mahal was Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. The material was brought in from
all over India and central Asia and it took a fleet of 1000 elephants to transport
it to the site.
The central dome is 187 feet high at the centre. Red
sandstone was brought from Fatehpur Sikri, Jasper from Punjab, Jade and Crystal
from China, Turquoise from Tibet, Lapis Lazuli and Sapphire from Sri Lanka, Coal
and Cornelian from Arabia and diamonds from Panna.
In all 28 kind of
rare, semi precious and precious stones were used for inlay work in the Taj Mahal.
The chief building material, the white marble was brought from the quarries of
Makrana, in distt. Nagaur, Rajasthan.
