On Saturday January 18th, we departed our hotel at 7:30am to beat the huge crowds which always swarm the Taj Majal on a Saturday. Approximately 20,000 people will visit the site on the same day as us. After getting within a mile of the entrance, we boarded a tram for the final approach.
As boys will be boys, facing backwards in the rear of the tram was a unanimous choice of Dad, Mabret and Roman.
The Taj Mahal is widely regarded as the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Islamic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Indian architectural styles.
In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The construction of the Taj Mahal began around 1632 and was completed around 1653. In 1631, Shah Jahan, emperor during the Mughal Empire's period of greatest prosperity, was grief-stricken when his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, a Persian princess died during the birth of their 14th child. Shah Jahan set out to build a mausoleum and surrounding structures to honor her memory. While there are many stories about the Taj Mahal, some mostly true and other perhaps spun from centuries of locals giving tours and never dispensing the information about the Taj Mahal the same way twice, the question that remained for me throughout our visit was, how did they build this thing 400 years ago.
The Taj Mahal was built on land to the south of the walled city of Agra. An area of roughly three acres was excavated, filled with dirt and leveled at 160 feet above the riverbank. In the tomb area, wells were dug and filled with stone and rubble to form the footings of the tomb. A nine mile ramp was built to transport marble and materials to the construction site and teams of twenty oxen pulled the blocks on specially constructed wagons. An elaborate post-and-beam pulley system was used to raise the blocks into their desired position. Water was drawn from the river by an animal-powered rope and bucket system into a large storage tank for distribution to the construction site.
The tomb took roughly 12 years to complete. The remaining parts of the complex took an additional 10 years to finish. The total cost has been estimated at 40 million dollars.
The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia and over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials. The white marble was brought from Rajasthan, India, the jasper from Punjab, India with jade and crystal coming from China. The turquoise was from Tibet while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka. Twenty-eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.
The end result is a series of structures that defy imagination even when you are blessed to be staring at them.
Outside the main gate of the Taj Mahal. The gate itself is remarkable.
The payoff. (Warning - it was a foggy morning. Sorry.)
The marble carving caught Roman's eye.
A view of the gardens looking out from the Taj Mahal.
The RTW Adventure Family feeling blessed as they depart the Taj Mahal.
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