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TRAVEL
NEWS
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THE
TAJ MAHAL
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The
Taj Mahal in Agra, India is arguably one
of the world's most beautiful architectural
treasures. The Taj Mahal was built by Emperor
Shah Jahan in the 17th century to fulfill
a promise to his wife as she lay dying.
Her white marble mausoleum sits in the magnificent
Chahar Bagh, or Gardens of Paradise, flanked
by a mosque to the west and guesthouse to
the east, both of red sandstone. The
Mausoleum of the Taj Mahal at Agra stands
in a formally laid-out walled garden entered
through a pavilion on the main axis.
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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.
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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.
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