WONDERS OF THE WORLD
THE TAJ MAHAL
The Taj Mahal India was first described as "a drop of tear on the cheek of history" by India's Poet laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, who was Asia’s first Nobel Prize winner.
The Taj Mahal India encompasses a tragic and enduring love story in the perfect symmetrical dream in marble that is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
The Taj Mahal India was created by Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal Emperor as a monument to his love for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Her final resting place is located in the city of Agra, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Yamuna River.
History of the Taj Mahal India
History of the Taj Mahal India shows that construction began in 1631 and took 22 years to complete with a work force of more than 20,000 men. It was finally finished in 1653 at a cost of 32 million Rupee or $400 million in today’s prices.
Nor surprisingly there have been many claims and counter claims regarding the Taj Mahal history and those who were responsible for its design and constrution.
Taj Mahal history does record that it was not designed by a single person. The project demanded the varied talents, creativity, artistry, skills and abilities of many. Twenty thousand workmen and master craftsmen- from Persia, France, Iran, Italy and Turkey worked on the building and their names were recorded for posterity on scrolls.
Fact of the Taj Mahal – Construction Feats
Facts of the Taj Mahal and its construction commence with the way the land was acquired for its construction to the south of the walled city of Agra. The site chosen by Shah Jahan for the resting place of his beloved wife had belonged to Maharajah Jai Singh. Shah Jahan presented him with a large palace in the centre of Agra in exchange for the site for his Taj Mahal.
An area of roughly three acres for the foundations was excavated and filled with dirt to reduce seepage from the river. The entire site was levelled to a fixed height about 50 m above the riverbank. The Taj Mahal is 180 feet tall. The dome itself measures 60 feet in diameter and 80 feet high.
In the tomb area, wells were then dug down until water was encountered. These wells were later filled with stone and rubble, forming the basis for the footings of the tomb. An additional well was built to same depth nearby to provide a visual method to track water level changes over time.
Instead of lashed bamboo, the typical scaffolding method, workmen constructed a colossal brick scaffold that mirrored the inner and outer surfaces of the tomb. The scaffold was so enormous that foremen estimated it would take years to dismantle.
According to legend, Shah Jahan decreed that anyone could keep bricks taken from the scaffold, and it was dismantled by peasants overnight.
The Taj Mahal construction facts reveal that a 15-kilometre tamped-earth ramp was built to transport marble and materials from Agra to the construction site. According to contemporary accounts teams of twenty or thirty oxen strained to pull the blocks on specially constructed wagons.
To raise the blocks into position required an elaborate post-and-beam pulley system. Teams of mules and oxen provided the lifting power. The order of construction was:
The plinth. The tomb. The four minarets. The mosque and jawab. The gateway.
The plinth and tomb took roughly 12 years to complete. The remaining parts of the complex took an additional 10 years. (Since the complex was built in stages, contemporary historical accounts list different "completion dates"; discrepancies between so-called completion dates are probably the result of differing opinions about the definition of "completion". For example, the mausoleum itself was essentially complete by 1643, but work continued on the rest of the complex.
