Taj Mahal

I of course had to blip this one.

Claimed by many to be the most beautiful building in the World, and the finest example of Muslim architecture and art in India, perhaps the Taj's attraction lies in why it was built.

In 1631, the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan was grief stricken when his third wife Mumtaz Mahal died during the birth of their 14th child.

It took 16 years to build the principal mausoleum and another 5 years to finish the gardens and surrounding buildings.

This is how Shah Jahan himself described the Taj:

Should guilty seek asylum here,
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display thereby the creator's glory.

The Taj builds upon earlier Persian architecture and earlier Mughal tombs like Timur's tomb in Samarkand and Humayun's Tomb in Delhi. Shah Jahan's innovation as the use of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones, repeated as patterns in the mausoleum, and the sheer scale and beauty of his conception.

The main finial integrates Persian and Hindu elements, with a moon with horns, that create a shape reminiscent of the Hindu symbol for Shiva.

The overall impression is of fearful symmetry, carried through with great determination, and the resources of the Mughal Empire at its height.

Shortly after its completion Shah Jahan was imprisoned in Agra Fort by his son - the next Emperor Aurangzeb. When Jahan died he was interred in the Taj alongside his wife Mumtaz.