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travellingtotaj · 5 years

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Taj Mahal’s Different Shades

Who is unfamiliar with the magnificence and beauty of the Taj Mahal? It is a part of the Seven Wonders of the World. It holds this renowned tag due to some very important reasons. It is also one of the UNESCO’s heritage sites. A tour to Taj Mahal is worthy when done at the right point of time. A Taj Mahal moonlight tour will give you a very different view of the monument from a sunrise Taj Mahal tour. This Agra Tour from Delhi lets you discover different faces of tourism.

This difference arises due to the various colours reflected by the ivory marble of the mesmerizing structure of the monument at different times in a day. It showcases pink shades in the early morning and demonstrates golden shades at night. Its colour seems to change all day. This feature of the Taj Mahal makes it all the more interesting and attractive.

This is only one reason to visit the Taj Mahal. There are many more that can be listed. But before visiting a site, one must know something about that place.

Taj Mahal is considered a symbol of love. It is built by the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan in the memory of her beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan had many wives. Mumtaz was his third wife who died while giving birth to their 14th child. Shah Jahan was stricken the loss of a long-time companion and decided to make his love for her immortal. The construction of the Taj Mahal started in the seventeenth century, one year after the death of Mumtaz.

Mumtaz Mahal’s casket is located inside the monument. Alongside it is the casket of Shah Jahan which was put there after his death in the prison of Aurangzeb. The graves of other faithful servers and family members are also placed inside the monument. Place where the graves are is simple because according to Muslim tradition graves are not supposed to be decorated but the place outside it is decorated with architectural designs.

It was designed by the master architect, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. 20000 artisans were placed to work and carve the white marble of the monument. Every minute carving is done very carefully. The placement of the four minarets of the Taj Mahal is done in such a way that even if they collapse, the grave of Mumtaz remains safe. Thus, they are bit tilted towards outside to prevent damage to the grave.

About 1000 elephants were used to transport the heavy building materials during the construction of the monument. Different kinds of marbles were used to construct the Taj Mahal which was brought from different parts of the country such as Rajasthan and Punjab.

Many precious and semi-precious stones were carved to beautify the Taj Mahal. They were sourced from Tibet, China, and Sri Lanka. It is a mix of Islamic, Persian and Indian design tradition.

There are countless lines of Muslim scripture carve on the walls of the Taj Mahal. These were majorly from the holy book of Quran. This was done under the supervision of the head calligrapher Abd-al Haqq known as Amanat Khan Shirazi.

Shah Jahan was not permitted to enter Taj Mahal during the last years of his life; He was allowed to view the monument from a distance.

Taj changes its colours according to the amount of light and also the time. If you choose a sunrise tour to Taj Mahal you will see a pinkish hue; if you visit the Taj in the afternoon, you will see the ivory white colour. In the night under the moonlight, the colour of the Taj changes to golden. Taj Mahal is a wondrous monument and a spectacular place to visit. You can choose the timings you wish to visit the Taj Mahal. It looks fabulous and different at different points of time in a day.

#sunrise #tajmahal #moonlight #tour

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