INDIA - Places

TAJ MAHAL

The TAJ MAHAL, which means the “palace of the Persian crown”, is located in Agra beside the Yamuna River in the state of Uttar Pradesh, in India. Its a mausoleum. A mausoleum is a monument of great dimensions, of white marble, built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Arjumand Banu Begam who was known as Mumtaz Mahal, which in Persian means "the light of the palace”. She died on June 17^th, 1631 while giving birth to their fourteenth child. She was burried first on the site, in the gardens of Zainabad at Burhanpur. At his death on January 31^st, 1666, her husband was buried with her. The TAJ MAHAL is considered as a jewel of the Mughal architecture, a style that combines Islamic architectural elements, Iranian, Indian and Ottoman. This temple was built in 1631 and was completed in 1643. The state of Uttar Pradesh, which officially celebrated the 350^th anniversary of the building in 2004 says that the work was completed in 1654. Among the 20,000 people who worked on the site, you coulf find master craftsmen from Europe and Central Asia. It is considered that the main architect was Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.

MOHAMED