The Taj Mahal (Persian/Urdu: تاج محل - "crown of palaces"), also "the Taj" is a white marble mausoleum located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. This epitome of Mughal architecture was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Taj Mahal is regarded as the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Indian architectural styles. Taj Mahal was built in 22 years (1631-1653) with the orders of Shah Jahan who appointed Lahauri as the principal designer. 20,000 workers labored and 32 crore Rupees were spent during the construction of the monument. It is said that Shah Jahan got the hands of his sculptors and architects cut off so that they would never be able to build a monument as magnificent and beautiful as the Taj again and he even got their eyes gorged out so that they would never be able to witness anything bigger and more beautiful than the monument that they had built during their lifetime. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Few photographs by Ruben Alexander are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 India License based on a work at www.flickr.com. Please write to rubenkalexander[at]gmail[dot]com before using any photograph.
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