How well do you know the Taj Mahal?
Everyone knows who built it and why. These six questions look closer, at the stone, the optical tricks, the weekly closing day and the single break in its symmetry.
Did you know?
- The two tombs visitors see in the main chamber are empty cenotaphs. The real graves of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan lie in a quieter crypt directly below, following a tradition that the actual graves should be kept plain while the upper chamber carries the rich decoration.
- The Taj Mahal opens for night viewing on the night of the full moon and the two nights before and after it, except on Fridays and during Ramadan. Small groups are admitted for half an hour at a time to see the white marble glowing in the moonlight.
- A popular story claims Shah Jahan planned a black marble twin across the river. Excavations at Mehtab Bagh found a garden with a large pool that would have reflected the Taj Mahal, and blackened stones there turned out to be white marble darkened by time.
Inside the world's most famous tomb
The Taj Mahal stands on the southern bank of the Yamuna River in Agra. The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ordered it built as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631, and work on the complex continued for around two decades. Historians estimate that about 20,000 workers took part, from stonecutters and masons to calligraphers and inlay artists. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 and draws millions of visitors every year.
Materials from far and wide
The main building is faced with white marble from Makrana in Rajasthan, more than 300 kilometres away, which was hauled to Agra by ox carts and, according to tradition, elephants. Traditional accounts say the inlaid stones came from across Asia: jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China, turquoise from Tibet, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and carnelian from Arabia. The marble shifts colour through the day, looking pinkish at dawn, bright white at noon and golden in the evening light.
A garden designed as paradise
The tomb sits at the far end of a charbagh, a garden divided into four parts by water channels, a layout linked to Persian descriptions of paradise. Unusually, the tomb stands at the garden's edge by the river rather than in its centre. A red sandstone mosque stands on its western side, and on the eastern side a matching building, called the jawab, or 'answer', was built mainly to keep the view symmetrical. Across the river lies Mehtab Bagh, the Moonlight Garden, aligned with the tomb.
Protecting a marble monument
Air pollution threatens the marble, which slowly yellows as dust and soot settle on it. In 1996 India's Supreme Court limited polluting industries in a protected area of about 10,400 square kilometres around the monument, known as the Taj Trapezium Zone. Petrol and diesel vehicles are not allowed right next to the complex, and visitors complete the last stretch on foot or by electric vehicle. Conservators also monitor the foundations, which rely on the level of the river and the ground beneath.