The Taj Mahal incorporates and expands on design traditions of Persian and earlier Mughal architecture.
The Taj Mahal was built by 22,000 labourers, painters, stonecutters, embroidery artists.
The name Taj Mahal means “crown of palaces”.
The Taj Mahal is located in Agra, a city in the Uttar Pradesh region of northern India.
Legend has it that Emperor Shah Jahan intended to build another Taj Mahal in black marble across the river but a war with his sons interrupted these plans.
The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”.
Under the British control in the late 19th century, the Taj Mahal’s greenery adopted a subtler character more common to British gardens.
On the sides of the actual tomb of Mumtaz Mahal, has 99 names of Allah can be found as calligraphic inscriptions.
The Taj Mahal is actually cracking at an alarming rate due to lack of groundwater beneath the structure.
The Taj Mahal is made of white marble.
In 2008, a Bangladeshi filmmaker constructed a replica of the Taj Mahal at a cost of US $56 million dollars so that his impoverished countrymen in Bangladesh could enjoy the famous monument without travelling to India. The replication took five years to complete with modern equipment.
Cars and buses are strictly prohibited from coming within 500 meters of the Taj Mahal.
Taj Mahal is the most famous Indian landmark.
Taj Mahal was declared a winner of the New 7 Wonders of the World (2000–2007) initiative.
Taj Mahal was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658) to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself.
The full height of the Taj Mahal is 171 metres (561 feet).
Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, generally regarded as the chief architect of the Taj Mahal, was not Indian; he was a Persian from Iran.
The materials that were used to build Taj Mahal were transported to the construction site by 1,000 elephants.
Islamic tradition forbids the decoration of graves, so Shah Jahan and his wife are actually buried in a plain crypt beneath the main inner chamber of the Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal complex is bordered on three sides by crenellated red sandstone walls; the side facing the river is open.
Taj Mahal attracts 2-4 million visitors annually with over 200,000 from overseas.
The Taj Mahal complex includes a large garden, a reflecting pool, a mosque and other mausoleums.
British soldiers pried precious stones from the walls of the Taj Mahal during the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857.
False structures and scaffolding were constructed around the Taj Mahal throughout different conflicts to confuse German, Japanese, and Pakistani bomber pilots.
The garden uses raised pathways that divide each of the four quarters of the garden into 16 sunken parterres or flowerbeds.
