Taj mahal

Taj mahal
An extravagant marble monument of love, built by Shahjahan in 1653 as a memorial to his queen Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to their 14th child. White marble and red sandstone, silver and gold, carenelian and jasper, moonstone and jade, lapiz lazuli and coral were fashioned by 20, 000 skilled workers to make the emperor's dream a reality. It took 22 years to complete - a poignant symbol of eternal love where Shahjahan too lies buried, reunited at last with his beloved Mumtaz.
Architecture of the Taj Mahal
It took 20,000 workmen twenty-two years (6132-1654) to build this marvel of a marble tomb. Ustad Isa, a Persian architect is said to have been the main designer of the Taj. Many others have figured as designers and craftsmen for the Taj Mahal: Geronimo Veroneo the venetian goldsmith; the silversmith Austin of Bordeaux, the Persians Ustad Ahmad and Ustad Hamid and so on. But the biggest influence was Shah Jahan himself.

The design of the monument is impressive: dating to the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus,the Tomb of Timur Lane (Gur Amir) at Samarkhand, to the relatively more recent Humayun�s and Khan Khanan�s tombs in Delhi. A common perception of progression through the landscape led the builders to a scheme of a traditional `char bagh�, a lucid Islamic composition of frames and closures, of walls concealing and gates revealing in a delicate balance of water, land and sky.