One of the 7 wonders of the modern world ... World Heritage ... the most representative work of Muslim art in India ... the qualifications held by the Taj Mahal certainly denote its magnificence and cultural importance for the task and human history.

This complex of buildings built between 1631 and 1654 in the city of Agra (India) by an emperor as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, contains behind a monument to a love story.

History

Prince Shahbuddin Mohammed had one of the best educations of the time and despite the unlimited wealth of his family never showed interest in wealth or interests of this. One day the prince fell in love in a bazaar of Princess Arjumand, only 15 years old, daughter of the Prime Minister of the Court. The prince, impressed by her beauty, asked the price of the crystal necklace she was trying on. They replied that it was not glass but diamonds and that it was worth 10,000 rupees. The prince paid without hesitation and thus conquered the heart of the princess immediately.

But the couple had to wait five years to get married, during which time they could not see each other once. Finally the wedding took place in the year 1612, with a spectacular ceremony, in which the Emperor named Arjumand Mumtaz Mahal, The Chosen One of the Palace. His beloved was not his first wife, but he was the favorite.
The prince was crowned a few years later with the name of Shah Jahan, King of the World and ruled in peace.

But a few years after being crowned, he suffered the worst tragedy of his life. His beloved and favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, did not resist the delivery of his 14th daughter. On her deathbed, the queen asked her king to build in his memory a monument without equal in the world.

In his memory he hired 20,000 workers to build what would be the best mausoleum in the world and an example of symmetry. The mausoleum of Taj Mahal, has that name in honor also to his wife, Mumtaz-i Mahal, whose name means Pearl of the Palace, according to other Chosen of the Palace. The name of the mausoleum, Taj Mahal, is sometimes considered an abbreviation of the Empress' own name, but it also means Crown of the Palace since, although it is a tomb, the emperor wanted to offer his wife a palace and a crown .

On a bend of the Yamuna River, the site of the incredible mausoleum was chosen.

Details in Marble

Twenty-two years of construction with the best materials, the fine marble and white of its walls was brought from the quarries of Jodhpur on elephants

Precious stones

Jade and crystal of China, turquoise of Tibet, lapis lazuli of Afghanistan, chrysolite of Egypt, agate of Yemen, sapphires of Ceylon, amethysts of Persia, coral of Arabia, malachite of Russia, quartz of the Himalayas, golconda diamonds and amber of the ocean Indian.

It is not known who exactly was the architect of the Taj Mahal. The name of Ustad Isa is mentioned, but if this character existed or not, it is pure conjecture. Another local legend says that the emperor killed the architect's wife so that he felt the same pain that he wanted to reflect when building the building, and that later left him blind and cut his hands so that he would never build something like it, but it is something that never It has been verified.

Emperor Shah Jahan wanted to build his own mausoleum in black marble, in the image of his wife, on the other side of the Yamuna River, and then join them together by means of a golden bridge. Today, on the other side of the river, in front of the Taj Mahal, there is a rest, in red stone, of what is said to have been the beginning of the construction of the twin building of the Taj Mahal. But it was not built as Aurangzeb, Shah Jahan's third son, after defeating his brothers and seizing power, imprisoned his own father in the red fortress of Agra.

Taj mahal black

Shah Jahan died in prison, after long years of illness, contemplating from his lodgings in the Red Fort the Taj Mahal, his great work, monument to his beloved and refuge for the eternal rest of both. On his deathbed, at age 74, he asked for a mirror to be placed to see his wife's grave. It is said that when he died, he looked at the Taj Mahal.

The mausoleum, on the inside, dazzles less than on the outside. The mortuary chamber is surrounded by thin marble walls embedded with precious stones that filter natural light, translating its beauty into a thousand colors. The sound of the interior, wide and high, is sad and mysterious, like an echo that sounds and resounds, and never stops. But the son of Shah Jahan broke with the perfect symmetry of the mausoleum for revenge, by burying his father next to Mumtaz Mahal. She is represented by a small earthenware, and the King, by an inkwell, symbolizes the woman as a blank paper on which her husband writes.

The Taj Mahal is not a single building, but a whole complex of large dimensions. In total 22 small domes symbolize the 22 years that the construction of the Taj Mahal lasted. Above the building there is a large dome in the center that is the crown of the palace, Taj Mahal. Surrounding this are four chattris with smaller domes; and at the ends of the platform four minarets culminated in even smaller domes, built with a certain inclination towards the outside so that, in case of collapse, they do not fall on the main building.

Surrounding the enclosure is a high red sandstone wall, surrounded in turn by gardens, with a monumental gateway to the south; it leads to an immense patio 300 m wide with a marble pond in the center and numerous gardens and fountains; the mausoleum proper, construction that is usually referred to by the name of Taj Mahal, flanked by two symmetrical buildings, to the west a mosque with three domes built in red sandstone and white marble, to the east the so-called echo of the mosque that it is not used for worship because it is oriented in the wrong direction and whose purpose is to maintain symmetry, the river being the backdrop of the whole impressive set.

Virtual view

I hope you enjoy my publication and see you in the next to continue sharing with all of you !!!!!!@brianrg13!!

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luiscampos-dg (38) · 7 years ago

The monument to a loved one, it makes you think if this is a material representation of the love of the emperor for his wife ... ¿How great and deep should have been the love in his heart?

Great post!!

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photocontests (64) · 7 years ago

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brianrg13 (44) · 7 years ago

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originalworks (69) · 7 years ago

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viking-ventures (69) · 7 years ago

Beautiful - both the story and the building. Thank you for sharing!

"The eternal message of love of a man to a woman written in white stone" Taj Mahal