Taj Mahal facts: Interesting facts about the historical monument

Finery of eternal love and tragedy, Taj Mahal is rightly chosen to be one of the wonders of the world. Mughal Emperor Shahjahan used the purest of marbles and the most exclusive semi-precious stones to create the amazing structure that it is, for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. This multi-faceted, UNESCO world heritage site is not only a beauty to behold, but also a carrier of many interesting facts.

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Smart engineering

• One of the lesser-known facts about the Taj Mahal, as suggested in a newspaper article1, is that it is taller than Qutub Minar, with a height difference of five feet.
• After UNESCO declared the Taj Mahal a heritage site in 1983, it released a comprehensive study on its perfect symmetry. The monument has a bilateral symmetry along the central axis that holds the popular features of the Taj Mahal.
• Amongst the numerous amazing facts about the engineering of the monument sits the factor of tilted minarets surrounding the Taj Mahal. A snippet from a 2013 documentary played on the Discovery channel explains that the reason behind tilted pillars was to save the tomb in cases of Earthquakes or other threats of collapsing.

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Intriguing must-know facts surrounding the architecture:

• According to an official website2, the Taj Mahal changes colour according to the time of the day. The reflective white marble and tiles on the outer wall assume different colours, such as a pinkish tint in the dawn and burnished gold in the twilight. It is believed that this change of colours symbolises the changes of moods in a woman, probably Mumtaz Mahal.
• According to history, the Taj Mahal was built before the formation of the Yamuna river, yet the location of its construction was so strategic that after the emergence of the river, the water protected the woods from getting dry and chipping off.

Enticing facts from history:

• The Archaeological Survey of India has assessed that it took 22 years for the Taj Mahal to be built. 22,000 workers were employed, and around 32 million rupees were spent on the beautiful construction.
• A renowned British archaeologist Mr Archibald Carlyle expressed in one of his reports that Shah Jahan originally intended to build a black Taj Mahal too. This Mahal was supposed to be a mausoleum for the emperor himself, right opposite to where his wife was laid. Deplorably, Shah Jahan was kidnapped by Aurangzeb, and the construction was put on pause, depriving us of what could have been yet another captivating architecture. The Taj Mahal facts face many conspiracies and mysteries revolving around them; nonetheless, the Taj Mahal itself still stands to be the most grandiose example of Muslim architecture with delicate carvings of the Quran.

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