The Taj Mahal, built in the Agra district of Uttar Pradesh, India between 1631 AD and 1648 AD, is a huge mausoleum made of white marble. A mausoleum is a free-standing outdoor building constructed as a monument containing a burial chamber of one or more deceased persons, considered a type of tomb. The name Taj Mahal actually means “crown of palaces”. The Taj Mahal is a very important monument in India and is considered one of the greatest architectural achievements of Indo-Islamic architecture. This architectural style combines Hindu art, traditional in this region, and the Islamic religion. The blend of the two helped redefine many Hindu traditions into an Islamic form that has dominated the area since the times of the Delhi Sultanate Empire, which lasted from 1192 AD to 1451 AD. This territory, historically populated by non-Muslims, provided a workforce not accustomed to the Islamic style. Humayun's tomb built in 1562 AD had a great influence on the design of the Taj Mahal. The structure incorporates Persian-influenced elements such as dome design and arched entrances, along with inspiration from contemporary Hindu design elements. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The immense beauty of the Taj Mahal has helped earn it the title of 'UNESCO World Heritage Site' and 'One of the Seven Wonders of the World' World.' The construction of the Taj Mahal is estimated to have cost around 32 million Indian rupees, equivalent to over $1 billion at the time. The Taj Mahal has 2 to 4 million visitors every year, with over 40 to 50 thousand visitors in a single day sometimes. The Taj Mahal has inspired people to create imitations in other countries. In 2008, a replica of the Taj Mahal was built in Bangladesh at a cost of $56 million. It took five years to complete the replica with modern equipment. The Taj Arabia, a luxury hotel and shopping complex, will soon open in Dubai. It will cost up to $350 million and be four times larger than the original. Due to terrible air pollution in Agra, the white marble of the Taj Mahal is rapidly turning yellow. For this reason, only electric vehicles are allowed to drive near the property. To reach the Taj Mahal, visitors and tourists have to walk or take electric buses from the parking lot. However, this is not the only problem plaguing the Taj Mahal today. It is breaking down at an alarming rate due to the lack of groundwater under the structure. The wooden foundations, which were once submerged, are believed to be rotting. The towers at the corner of the Taj Mahal begin to lean more. The Taj Mahal, which stands on a raised platform, is located on the bank of the Yamuna River in a large garden spanning nearly 17 hectares. The entire monument covers an area of ​​42 acres. At the top of the Taj Mahal is a very large dome. The mausoleum is surrounded on three sides by red sandstone walls, with the side facing the river left open. The main gate, also made of red sandstone, faces the southern gate. The door measures 46 m by 35.7 m and reaches a height of 30.5 m. It is engraved with verses from the Quran in Arabic. The small domed pavilions at the top are Hindu in style and signify royalty. You can find a mosque, also made of red sandstone, to the left of the Taj Mahal. It is very common in Islam to build a mosque next to a tomb. Even today the mosque is used for Friday prayers. There are four minarets, which are tall, slender towers, at each corner of the base. They measure 41.6m tall and each have an intentional outward tilt so that, in the event of an earthquake, they will fall farfrom the grave instead of on it. A double staircase facing the entrance constitutes the only access point to the plinth and the tomb. The interior consists of a high central chamber, a crypt immediately below and four octagonal corner rooms which were originally intended to house the tombs of other members of the royal family. In the center are the cenotaphs of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. There is also the garden, which contains raised red sandstone paths that divide it into four segments. A raised square marble pool is positioned between the Taj Mahal and the main entrance. There are many different fruit trees and cypress trees located along the raised central path. The construction of the Taj Mahal began in 1631 AD and was finally completed and inaugurated in 1648 AD. The mosque, main southern gate, outer courtyard and guesthouse were added and completed later in 1653 AD. It was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died on 17 June 1631 while giving birth to their 14th child. Her final wish for her husband was "to build in his memory a tomb such as the world had never seen before". Over 22,000 different craftsmen and craftsmen from across the empire worked daily for almost 17 years to help build the Taj Mahal. Ustad-Ahmad Lahori was the principal architect and Amanat Khan Shirazi was the calligrapher of the Taj Mahal. During the construction of the Taj Mahal, approximately 22,000 workers, painters, masons, stonemasons, calligraphers and artisans from all over India and Central Asia were employed during the construction period. The marble used for the building came from different regions of India. Over a thousand elephants were used to transport building materials to the site. There was a council of architects that oversaw the design elements under imperial supervision. It took 10 years to build the main tomb and another 12 years to build the other auxiliary buildings. Disparities exist in completion dates due to differing opinions on completion as the complex was built in different phases. Since the Taj Mahal was built so long ago, there is still a lot to discover about its construction. However, we can make some deductions about the construction method. The mausoleum is the centerpiece of the complex, made entirely of white marble. Marble is one of the oldest and most widely used building materials in the world, having been used to create various statues, historic buildings, and more. Marble is also very durable in a wide variety of weather conditions, which explains why the Taj Mahal still looks so beautiful today. It is also very resistant to heat and fire. The Taj Mahal is situated on a square plinth raised at a height of 50 m from the river level, also made of white marble. The main foundation was one of the major challenges that the Mughal builders faced. The sand on the shore had to be stabilized to support the massive load of the mausoleum. An area of ​​approximately 1.2 hectares was excavated, filled with earth to reduce infiltration and finally leveled to 50 m above the river. In the area around the tomb, wells were dug and filled with rubble, iron and stone to strengthen the tomb's foundations. Workers built a giant brick scaffold that mirrored the tomb instead of using tied bamboo. The scaffolding was so enormous that foremen estimated it would take several years to dismantle it. Once the construction of the terrace was finished, work began on the rest of the complex. The trees in the garden were planted almost immediately so that they would have enough time to grow while the work continued. Once the foundations were complete, they werebuild the mausoleum walls along with the mosque, guest house and gate. The basic structure of the Taj Mahal is a large cube with multiple chambers and chamfered corners and is 55 m long on each of the four sides. Each side of the iwan, a rectangular hall or space, is framed by a huge pishtaq, the formal doorway of the iwan. Pishtag is a Persian term for a portal protruding from the facade of a building, usually decorated with calligraphic bands, geometric designs and glazed tiles. The designs are completely symmetrical on all sides of the building. The bricks used to build the Taj Mahal were sealed with mortar, a material used to fill gaps in masonry constructions. To reach the highest parts of the construction, the workers used scaffolding. They most likely used bamboo and brick scaffolding to support the building and the construction itself. However, it is questionable whether they also used brick scaffolding, so it is more likely that they used bamboo. Abstract shapes are used throughout, including the plinth, minarets, doorway, mosque, jawab and on tomb surfaces. Elaborate geometric shapes, worked with fretwork of engraved paint, can be found on the domes and vaults of sandstone buildings. Herringbone patterns form the space between many of the adjacent elements. Black inlays are used on white marble and white inlays are used in sandstone buildings. Walkways and floors contain contrasting blocks and tiles in various tessellation patterns. The mortar parts of marble buildings were painted or stained in contrasting colours, creating a complex array of patterns. The encrustation of these stone decorations requires very specialized labor. These specialists in lapidary inlay were trained by Italian artisans employed at the emperor's court. On the base of the mausoleum is the marble dome. The dome is almost 35 meters high and rests on a cylindrical drum. The dome is often referred to as an onion dome or guava dome due to its unique and similar shape. It is decorated with a lotus-shaped design, which helps to accentuate its height. There are four smaller domed chhatris placed in the corners, resembling the onion shape of the main dome structure. Chhatris are dome-shaped pavilions commonly used in Indian architecture. The word chhatri means "canopy" or "umbrella". Their columned bases open through the roof of the mausoleum providing light to the interior. Tall decorative spiers, called guldastas, extend from the edges of the walls to highlight the dome. The lotus design is duplicated on both guldastas and chhattris. A golden pinnacle completes the dome and the chhattris, which are traditional in Persian and Hindustani architecture and design. The original pinnacle was gold but was replaced in 1800 with a gilt bronze copy. The minarets in each corner of the base are made of blocks of white marble cut into curves. They were connected with black stones to simulate joints. Both the main gate and the mosque are made of red sandstone. Sandstone was a very popular building material in ancient times. It has been used throughout the world in the construction of everything from temples to homes and other buildings. It has also been used for artistic purposes to create fountains and statues. It is quite soft, which makes it easy to carve. The inner chamber of the Taj Mahal contains more than just traditional decorative elements. Although only the door facing the south garden is used, the octagonal-shaped internal chamber allows entry from each facade. The internal walls reach 25 meters in height and are topped by an internal dome containing a drawing of the sun. Eight arches enclose itspace at floor level. Four of the central upper arches form balconies, with each outer window containing an intricate screen cut into the marble, also known as a jali. Light enters from the roof openings covered by chhrattris at the corners, as well as from the balcony screens. The jali enclosing the royal cenotaphs is composed of eight marble panels inlaid with semi-precious stones. Since the use of animal or human images is strictly prohibited in Islamic culture, it is necessary to use different decorative styles. These decorations included floral motifs and calligraphic inscriptions. The inscriptions, found inside and outside the mausoleum, are mostly verses from the Koran. Abd-ul-Haqq, a Persian, created the calligraphic decorations of the Taj Mahal. The stones used are many different things such as intertwined vines, flowers and fruits. The lapidary inlay and exquisite calligraphic panels on each wall of the chamber are reminiscent of the design elements seen throughout the complex's exterior. There are around 30 different types of precious and semi-precious stones that appear in the chamber's brickwork, making the interior decoration very intricate. Inside the casket there are numerous calligraphic inscriptions. The Taj Mahal garden, which leads to the tomb rather than surrounds it, is very different from most Mughal gardens, which are rectilinear in shape and often have a tomb in the center. This could be because the Yamuna River itself was also integrated into the land design. The garden runs north to south from the gate to the tomb. It is divided into four sections by four intersecting canals, with fountains and cypress trees lining the canals. The four channels meet in the center in a raised lotus pond made of white marble. The surface of the pond reflects the image of the mausoleum. In the 1800s, during British rule in India, the gardens were redesigned in a formal English style, with well-manicured lawns. The original garden was embellished with numerous roses and daffodils. What if it were made today? We already know a lot about how the Taj Mahal would be built today because it has already been replicated several times around the world. These replicas are found in Bangladesh, China, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, as well as other parts of India. The Bibi Ka Maqbara, located in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, was inspired by the Taj Mahal in Agra. It was built between 1651 AD and 1661 AD Azam Shah hoped to build a monument that could rival the Taj Mahal. He lacked the financial resources and skilled labor that his grandfather, the creator of the Taj Mahal, had access to. This resulted in a poor copy of the Taj Mahal. It is reported that the construction of the Bibi Ka Maqbara cost Azam Shah 700,000 rupees, compared to the Taj Mahal, which at that time was built at a cost of around 32 million rupees. More recently Dubai's Taj Arabia includes a 300-room five-star hotel, apartments, restaurants and shops. The total development cost was over $350 million. The Royal Pavilion in the UK is also famous for its resemblance to the Taj Mahal. The architecture of the Royal Pavilion is inspired by the 19th century Indo-Saracenic style prevalent throughout India. There is also Bangladesh's Taj Mahal, which was finished in 2008 by Bangladeshi director Ahsanullah Moni in the capital Dhaka. He was inspired after visiting the real Taj Mahal in Agra, so he built his replica in Bangladesh for a film set in a bid to attract more tourists to Dhaka. He also wanted to make it easier for less fortunate people in Bangladesh to be able to visit the Taj Mahal without having to travel all the way to India. All these modern replicas are not exactly the same as the original. Since they were built later, they have their own special features. There.