The Taj Mahal

As you may know, I was in India for a week. We had an awesome time and we were able to spend a day at the Taj Mahal. I had always assumed that it was a religious monument, however it isn't. It is actually a tomb built by Muslim Mughal Emperor Shāh Jahān to honour his favourite wife Arjumand Bano Begum, who is better known as Mumtāz.

It took 22000 workers, 23 years to build, from white marble. There is an incredible amount of inlay work and carving, all cut by hand. It is completely symmetrical in every aspect except one, explained in the next paragraph. The gardens, the mosque, every jewel, every carving, is a complete mirror image from every side.

The monument was built to house his wife's body He had actually planned to have a black version for built himself, and it was actually started, but his son felt that it was too costly and wasteful and kyboshed the idea. When he died, his son entombed him alongside his wife, who had been placed in the centre of the mausoleum, hence throwing off the symmetry of the place.

Our tour guide spun us the usual tour guide BS mixed in with the facts. He said there 16 gardens and 53 fountains to represent the year it was finished, 22 steps leading up to the monument representing the number of years it took to build (except that isn't right); you know usual global tour guide stuff, almost believable, but cannot be proven.

They have this great trick where by optical illusion you can pretend to be "picking up" the Taj! As always Wikipedia does a great job of detailing the history and facts here, and of course I have lots of pictures here.

One last interesting fact that again I cannot prove is true, is that the four towers lean out by 2.5 degrees to protect the Taj Mahal should there be an earthquake. Wikipedia doesn't mention it, and they could appear to lean from an optical illusion, either way it was thought provoking.