Forgotten Wonder

Taj Mahal

Picture courtesy of The Majestic Mahal
Located at the city of Agra in the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful masterpieces of architecture in the world. Agra, situated about 200 km south of New Delhi, was the Capital of the Mughals (Moguls), the Muslim Emperors who ruled Northern India between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Mughals were the descendents of two of the most skilled warriors in history: the Turks and the Mongols. The Mughal dynasty reached its highest strength and fame during the reign of their early Emperors, Akbar, Jehangir, and Shah Jehan.
It was Shah Jehan who ordered the building of the Taj, in honor of his wife, Arjumand Banu who later became known as Mumtaz Mahal, the Distinguished of the Palace. Mumtaz and Shah Jehan were married in 1612 and, over the next 18 years, had 14 children together. The Empress used to accompany her husband in his military campaigns, and it was in 1630, in Burhanpur, that she gave birth to her last child, for she died in childbirth. So great was the Emperor love to his wife that he ordered the building of the most beautiful mausoleum on Earth for her.
Although it is not known for sure who planned the Taj, the name of an Indian architect of Persian descent, Ustad Ahmad Lahori, has been cited in many sources. As soon as construction began in 1630, masons, craftsmen, sculptors, and calligraphers were summoned from Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Europe to work on the masterpiece. The site was chosen near the Capital, Agra on the southwest bank of the River Yamuna. The architectural complex is comprised of five main elements: the Darwaza or main gateway, the Bageecha or garden, the Masjid or mosque, the Naqqar Khana or rest house, and the Rauza or the Taj Mahal mausoleum. The actual Tomb is situated inside the Taj.
The unique mughal style combines elements of Persian, Central Asian, and Islamic architecture. Most impressive are the black and white chessboard marble floor, the four tall minarets (40 m high) at the corners of the structure, and the majestic dome in the middle. On closer look, the lettering of the Quran verses around the archways appears to be uniform, regardless of their height. The lettering spacing and density has been customized to give this impression to the beholder. Other illusionary effects have been accounted for in the geometry of the tomb and the tall minarets. The impressive pietra dura artwork includes geometric elements, plants and flowers, mostly common in Islamic architecture. The level of sophistication in artwork becomes obvious when one realizes that a 3 cm decorative element contains more than 50 inlaid gemstones.
Related Links
Taj Mahal at Indian Travel Port
Explore the Taj Mahal
The Majestic Mahal
Taj Mahal: A Shrine of Love Official Page
Uttar Pradesh: Agra, the City of Taj Mahal
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Forgotten Wonders
Modern Wonders
Natural Wonders

Explore the Taj Mahal

- Explore the Virtual Tour - click here -- 360° Panoramas, Movies, Photos, Narration, Maps, Music and Text -- View areas which are off-limits to the public, including the Taj Mahal's Roof, Minarets & Crypt - - Downloadable Assets for Schools - Integrated Text for Hearing-Impaired visitors -adPicsSetup(); -->
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Downloadable Assets for Schools and non-commercial use
18 Apr 2007 - One of the most beautiful buildings in the world, the Taj Mahal is all set to get a facelift. - HindustanTimes.com
10 Jan 2007 - Gates at India's Taj Mahal Get Facelift ...Archaeologists and conservationists have starting giving the massive gates of the Taj Mahal a facelift to repair weather damage to the majestic 17th-century monument. - WashingtonPost.com
22 Nov 2006 - China's Hu savours Taj Mahal ... Chinese President Hu Jintao put aside his official duties to soak up the beauty of the Taj Mahal - Reuters.com
18 Aug 2006 - Letter Threatens to Blow Up Taj Mahal ... purportedly sent by al-Qaeda supporter - ABC News
In December 1631, the fifth Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, commenced the construction of one of the greatest monuments of all time, the Taj Mahal. It is a mausoleum built in the memory of his beloved and favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, fulfilling one of the promises that he made to her as she lay on her deathbed: To erect a monument to match her beauty.
Our online virtual tour enables visitors to interactively explore the "UNESCO World Heritage Site", the Taj Mahal at Agra in India. Visitors may tour 22 different areas of the monument and gardens through 360° panoramas, maps, narrated mini-movies, music and text. A small 360° panorama above a clickable map allows a quick view of any area. Having spotted something of interest, visitors can then click to open a window with a much larger and higher quality 360° panorama, and then zoom in and pan around for a detailed inspection. For example: To view the inlaid semi-precious stones on the Dome itself. At any point, visitors can view narrated mini-movies about the people, architecture, politics and history of the site (also includes full Text for the hearing-impaired).
An easy-to-follow map also ensures that, unlike a real tourist, our virtual visitors can jump around the gardens and monument with a single click. There are even exclusive 360° panoramic views taken from the Roof and in the Crypt of the monument - these areas are completely Off-Limits to the public. All of our panoramas have descriptive narration, music, integrated text for the hearing-impaired, and MS Word files with pictures.

We highly recommend "Beneath a Marble Sky: A Love Story" by our friend, John Shors
"Brings the Taj to Life!"- W. Donelson
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Taj Mahal
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Architect
Emperor Shah Jahan
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Location
Agra, India map
Date
1630 to 1653 timeline
Building Type
Islamic tomb
Construction System
bearing masonry, inlaid marble
Climate
desert
Context
park setting
Style
Islamic
Notes
Onion-shape domes, flanking towers, built for wife Mumatz Mahal.
Images

Photo, from a distance
Photo, close in looking up
Photo, inset bay and entry
Photo, exterior overview
More Images Aerial view of Taj Mahal
Poster Image - Taj Mahal, Classic Overview Poster Image - Taj Mahal Rendering, Overview in Historical Context
Drawings
Engraving Engraving
More drawings available on The GBC CD-ROM. Contributions appreciated.
3D Model

3D Massing Model (DesignWorkshop 3dmf)
Model Viewing Instructions

Discussion
Taj Mahal Commentary
"A white marble tomb built in 1631-48 in Agra, seat of the Mugal Empire, by Shah Jehan for his wife, Arjuman Banu Begum, the monument sums up many of the formal themes that have played through Islamic architecture. Its refined elegance is a conspicuous contrast both to the Hindu architecture of pre-Islamic India, with its thick walls, corbeled arches, and heavy lintels, and to the Indo-Islamic styles, in which Hindu elements are combined with an eclectic assortment of motifs from Persian and Turkish sources."
—Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture: from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. p223.
"The Mausoleum of the Taj Mahal at Agra stands in a formally laid-out walled garden entered through a pavilion on the main axis. The tomb, raised on a terrace and first seen reflected in the central canal, is entirely sheathed in marble, but the mosque and counter-mosque on the transverse axis are built in red sandstone. The four minarets, set symmetrically about the tomb, are scaled down to heighten the effect of the dominant, slightly bulbous dome. The mosques, built only to balance the composition are set sufficiently far away to do no more than frame the mausoleum. In essence, the whole riverside platform is a mosque courtyard with a tomb at its centre. The great entrance gate with its domed central chamber, set at the end of the long watercourse, would in any other setting be monumental in its own right."
"The interior of the building is dimly lit through pierced marble lattices and contains a virtuoso display of carved marble. Externally the building gains an ethereal quality from its marble facings, which respond with extraordinary subtlety to changing light and weather."
—Sir Banister Fletcher. A History of Architecture. p624, 630.
Details
On a platform 22' high and 313' square.
Corner minarets 137' tall. Main structure 186' on a side, dome to 187'.
The mausoleum is 57 m (190 ft) square in plan. "The central inner dome is 24.5 m (81 ft) high and 17.7 m (58 ft) in diameter, but is surmounted by an outer shell nearly 61 m (200 ft) in height."
—Sir Banister Fletcher. A History of Architecture. p630.
Specific design credit is uncertain, and is given by different sources to Istad Usa, Ustad Ahmad Lahori, Isa Muhammad Effendi, or Geronimo Veroneo.
Resources
Sources on Taj Mahal
"Online Trip to the Taj Mahal", by ArchitectureWeek, ArchitectureWeek No. 38, 2001.0214, pC1.1.
Werner Blaser and Monica Stucky. Drawings of Great Buildings. Boston: Birkhauser Verlag, 1983. ISBN 3-7643-1522-9. LC 83-15831. NA2706.U6D72 1983. plan drawing, p140. section drawing, p141.
Francis D. K. Ching. Architecture: Form, Space, and Order. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1979. ISBN 0-442-21535-5. LC 79-18045. NA2760.C46. figure-ground plans, p111. eye-level perspective drawing, p141. — A nice graphic introduction to architectural ideas. Updated 1996 edition available at Amazon.com
Howard Davis. Slide from photographer's collection. PCD 2260.1012.0405. PCD 2260.1012.0405. PCD 2260.1012.0405. PCD 2260.1012.0405.
Dietrich Brandenburg. Der Taj Majal in Agra. Berlin: Verlag Bruno Hessling, 1969. NA6008.A33B7. plan, p94. elevation, p39. site plan, p68.
Sir Banister Fletcher. A History of Architecture. Boston: Butterworths, 1987. ISBN 0-408-01587-X. NA200.F63 1987. details and discussion p624, 630. Expanded 1996 edition, available at Amazon.com
G. E. Kidder Smith. Looking at Architecture. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Publishers, 1990. ISBN 0-8109-3556-2. LC 90-30728. NA200.S57 1990. photo from across reflecting pool, p87.
Great Buildings Model Kit : Great Buildings of the World. Julian Bicknell, Steve Chapman (Contributor). Clarkson Potter(June 1995). ISBN 0517883503. — A kit book with detailed pre-cut scale models of four famous buildings: Monticello, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Taj Mahal, and the Parthenon. available at Amazon.com
Kevin Matthews. The Great Buildings Collection on CD-ROM. Artifice, 2001. ISBN 0-9667098-4-5.— Available at Amazon.com
Find books about Taj Mahal
Search the RIBA architecture library catalog for more references on Taj Mahal
Web Resources
Links on Taj Mahal
Explore the Taj Mahal — online VR tour
Taj Mahal at Archiplanet — Find, add, and edit info at the all-buildings collaboration
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