The Taj Mahal - What went into building it?

[marcopolo123]

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who have seen the Taj Mahal and those who haven’t. The Taj Mahal is probably the world’s most recognizable and beautiful man-made structure in the world.

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The sheer Size
The Taj Mahal was a project of mind boggling scale where material and workers came from all corners of India and Asia. Red sandstone came from Fatehpur Sikri, Jasper from Punjab, Jade and Crystal from China, Turquoise from Tibet, Lapis Lazuli & Sapphire from Sri Lanka, Coal and Cornelian from Arabia and Diamonds from Panna in Madhya Pradesh. A thousand elephants were used to transport all this material to Agra.

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A labour force of twenty thousand workers also had Sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria & Persia and stone cutters from Baluchistan. Some of the key people involved in the construction were Ismail Afandi of the Ottoman Empire for designing the main dome, 'Puru' from Benares, Persia was the supervising architect, Qazim Khan, a native of Lahore cast the solid gold finial, Chiranjilal, a lapidary from Delhi was the chief sculptor and mosaicist, while Amanat Khan from Shiraz, Iran played the role of the chief calligrapher.

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A discovery
The Taj Mahal is symmetry personified except for the fact that the pillars surrounding it are slightly tilted outwards. This was intentional, so that in the event of an earthquake they will fall away from the tomb!

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Exclusivity Contract
Legend says that the emperor Shah Jahan signed contracts with his workmen barring them in building anything remotely similar to the Taj Mahal in future. Some even say, that he cut off the hands of the key architects! Shah Jahan will be disappointed to note that several replicas of the Taj Mahal can be seen today across the world. Prominent among them are the Taj Mahal Bangladesh, the Bibi Ka Maqbara in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, NJ and the Tripoli Shrine Temple in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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(the Yamuna)

Interestingly, there are many mysteries and hidden secrets about the Taj Mahal. Some also say that there was to be another Taj Mahal build with black marble adjacent to the White wonder! The mysteries remain unresolved but there is consensus on the fact that no other entity personifies eternal love better than Taj Mahal.