The Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful structures ever made, it is also one of the most recognizable monuments in the world, and rightly deserves its place as one of the Seven Wonders of the world. Commissioned by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1632, The Taj Mahal was built to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
The construction project was one of the largest and most expensive projects at the time and is regarded by many as the best example of Mughal architecture and a symbol of India’s rich history. Over its long and rich history.
The Taj Mahal is no stranger to mysterious facts and several myths. Which is why, in this article, we will be looking at some of the unknown facts, you might have not known about Taj Mahal.
Unknown Facts About Taj Mahal
- The Taj Mahal was built by 22,000 laborers, painters, stonecutters, embroidery artists.
- Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal to house the tomb of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to their 14th child. His wife was in labor for 30 hours before she died at age 40.
- With construction beginning around 1632 and finishing in 1653, the Taj Mahal took an estimated 22 years to build.
- Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, generally regarded as the chief architect of the Taj Mahal, was not Indian; he was a Persian from Iran.
- Construction of the Taj Mahal cost an estimated 32 million Indian rupees which is equivalent to 70 Billion Rupees in 2020.
- Over 1,000 elephants were used to transport heavy materials and supplies for construction.
- A total of 28 types of precious and semiprecious jewels are set in the marble.
- Following the Taj Mahal’s completion, Shah Jahan was put under house arrest in 1658 by his son, Aurangzeb. Shah Jahan was only able to view the Taj Mahal from his window for the last eight years of his life before being entombed there.
- The Taj Mahal was covered with a huge scaffold during the second world war, so that it looked like a stockpile of bamboo to bombers.
- The story that the arms of all artisans were amputated after the completion of Taj Mahal, so that they could not replicate the structure is probably a myth. Historians believe that the workers had to sign a contract before starting working on the structure.
- Legend has it that Emperor Shah Jahan intended to build another Taj Mahal in black marble across the river but a war with his sons interrupted these plans.
- The most recognizable feature is the white dome at the peak of the mausoleum. Known as the ‘onion dome’, it rises to about 35 meters and is surrounded by four other domes.
- The Taj Mahal attracts over 8 million visitors every year.
- Many of the precious stones on the mausoleum were ripped off from the walls of the mausoleum by the British army during the Indian rebellion of 1857.
- The Taj Mahal’s white marble is rapidly turning yellow because of terrible air pollution in Agra. Only electric vehicles are allowed near the structure, and a 4,000-square-mile environmental radius was declared around the monument to help control emissions. Visitors must walk or take electric buses from the parking area to the Taj Mahal.
- The ceiling of the main hall of the Taj contains a small hole which is perpendicularly right above Mumtaj Mahal’s tombstone. It is believed that one of the artisans left the hole so as to create a flaw and destroy the dream of Shah Jahan to make it flawless after the artisan came to know about Shah Jahan’s plan of amputating all the artisans after completion of the construction.
- The colour of the Taj Mahal changes depending on the light. It gives out a pinkish hue during the early morning hours. During the evening the Taj looks milky white. At night time, under the moonlight, the Taj Mahal gives out a light blue hue.
- The publically open floor of the Taj Mahal that the visitors see now is not the real tomb of the ruler and his deceased wife. The actual tombs are at the garden level, which is two levels below the raised platform and is closed to the public.
- The Taj Mahal is closed every Friday because it has an active working mosque on the premises, which is open to prayers every Friday in the afternoon.
- The Taj Mahal is 561 feet high, which makes it 5 feet taller than the Qutub Minar.
- The Taj Mahal is closed every Friday because it has an active working mosque on the premises, which is open to prayers every Friday in the afternoon.
- The foundation of Taj Mahal is made of timber, which is not supposed to be long lasting. The wood should have weakened overtime and crumbled, but that did not happen because the wood is kept strong and moist by the Yamuna river.
- PC Sorkar Jr. managed to create an optical illusion that made the Taj vanish from the eyes of the public at Kachhpura in Agra on 8th November 2000.
- Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, an American Grammy Award-winning artist named himself Taj Mahal.
- The makers of Taj Mahal used an optical trick in the construction of the structure, so that when you move closer to the gate, the Taj keeps getting smaller.
- In 2008, a Bangladeshi filmmaker constructed a replica of the Taj Mahal at a cost of US $56 million dollars so that his countrymen in Bangladesh could enjoy the famous monument without traveling to India. The replication took five years to complete with modern equipment.
- The architecture of the Taj Mahal truly expands and depicts the early Mughal designs which is a combination of Indian, Persian and Islamic design tradition.
- Agra was not supposed to be the actual site for Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal was supposed to be built in Burhanpur (Madhya Pradesh) where Mumtaz died during the childbirth. But due to the shortage of white marble In Burhanpur, the project was shifted to Agra.
- The tomb contains 99 different names of Allah as calligraphic inscriptions.
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