Built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth (commissioned 1631)
She died bearing their fourteenth child at Burhanpur
Geography · Landmarks & wonders
The Taj Mahal
commissioned 1631; complex completed 1653
India — Agra, Uttar Pradesh, on the Yamuna
The white marble mausoleum raised by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan on the bank of the Yamuna at Agra for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth in 1631. The high point of Mughal architecture — a perfectly symmetrical tomb of inlaid marble set in a charbagh garden, flanked by a mosque and its mirror image — it was voted one of the New7Wonders of the World in 2007.
How to spot them
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Shah Jahan', 'Mumtaz Mahal', 'Agra', 'Yamuna', 'charbagh', 'pietra dura'
- ▸A white marble dome mirrored in a long reflecting pool, with four detached minarets
- ▸A grief monument: a tomb built by an emperor for his favourite wife
- ▸Its builder ended his days imprisoned by his own son within sight of it
Key facts
Its walls are inlaid with pietra dura flowers in jasper, jade, lapis and carnelian
Hardstone inlay by craftsmen drawn from across Asia; the marble came from Makrana in Rajasthan
Its four minarets lean very slightly outward, so that in an earthquake they would fall away from the tomb
They are detached from the plinth for the same reason
Set in a charbagh — a four-part paradise garden quartered by watercourses
Unusually, the tomb stands at the end of the garden rather than at its centre
A mosque on its west side is balanced by an identical building on the east that serves no religious purpose
The jawab, or 'answer', exists purely for symmetry; it faces the wrong way for prayer
Its builder spent his last years imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in a fort a mile upriver (1658–1666)
He was buried beside his wife — the one asymmetry in the whole design
A 2007 New7Wonders winner, built as a mausoleum for a favourite wife who died in childbirth (2007)
Quick-fire facts
- •Design is traditionally attributed to the court architect Ustad Ahmad Lahauri
- •The tomb stands at the centre of a complex of about 17 hectares, walled on three sides and open to the river
- •The whole complex is believed to have been finished in 1653, about 22 years after work began
- •A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983
- •Air pollution has yellowed the marble; industry around Agra is restricted and the surface is periodically treated with a clay pack
- •Common misconception: the cenotaphs in the main chamber are empty show-pieces — the actual graves lie in a plain crypt below
- •Another misconception: the story that Shah Jahan had the craftsmen's hands cut off, or planned a 'black Taj' opposite, has no contemporary evidence behind it
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Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Taj Mahal
- W. E. Begley and Z. A. Desai — Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb