The Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal counts as one of the most beautiful buildings in India; it has the art of the Mughals and shows us how the people pay a lot of time and money to build a beautiful building would that least a long time. The Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal for the memory of his wife Arjumand Banu and queen Mumtaz Mahal ; on the other hand, the other reason may be to build the Taj Mahal was a dream of Emperor Shah Jahan. The Taj Mahal took a long time about sixteen years between 1632 until 1648 C.E. and the building was built in Agra in Northern India. There were many workers who worked in the construction, about twenty thousand workers and the cost of the building was around 32 million rupees.

Most of the material used to build the Taj Mahal was provided from Asia which includes the white marble, jasper, crystal, turquoise, lapis lazuli, sapphire, carnelian plus twenty eight types of precious and semi precious stone placed with the white marble; the material was transported using elephants. The designer of Taj Mahal Ustad Ahmad Lahouri was the master architect. There was a change of the design of the Taj Mahal when Shah Jahan asked to use the white marble with semi-precious stones that give a change in the design. The design and architecture of the Taj Mahal combines the Persian and early Mughal architecture.  The hand of the designer has been cut off in order to keep the design of the Taj Mahal secure only for Mughals Emperor not to build the same building in other places. Shah Jahan is the actual one who built the Taj Mahal.  Northern India was the source of the labour force with the need of calligraphers from Syria & Persia, inlayers provided from southern India, stone cutters from Baluchistan. There was a problem when they constructed a colossal brick scaffold which was how to dismantle it in less time and this was solved when the Emperor Shah Jahan declared that any worker can keep the bricks that they will take from the scaffold.

The importance of my topic shows when a lot of visitors visit the Taj the design of the Taj Mahal from outside and inside tells us how architects in the past played a vital role in building something good without the need of using computers, heavy equipment and huge man power.  In the past, the Taj Mahal meant a lot for Shah Jahan the Emperor of Mughals as a memory for his wife; however, for today the Taj Mahal is worth a huge value for India as a historical building and it encourages visitor and architects to get a lesson in life and beauty.

  

Reference;

1. 1.       Manohar, U. (n.d.). The Taj Mahal: History and Facts. Buzzle. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-taj-mahal-history-and-facts.html
2. 2.       century, t. l., & 1857, p. o. (n.d.). Taj Mahal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal
3. 3.       Taj Mahal India. (n.d.). Taj Mahal India. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from http://www.tajmahal.com/
4. 4.       Taj Mahal - UNESCO World Heritage Centre. (n.d.). UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/252
5. 5.       Taj Mahal - Taj Mahal India - Taj Mahal Agra - Taj Mahal Travel- Taj Mahal Information - Tajmahal India. (n.d.). Taj Mahal - Taj Mahal India - Taj Mahal Agra - Taj Mahal Travel- Taj Mahal Information - Tajmahal India. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from http://www.tajmahal.org.uk/
6. 6.       Retrieved April 30, 2013, from http://www.raa.com.au/travel_blog.aspx?