Interesting facts about the Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal is a visiting card of India. Everyone saw him (at least in the pictures), but not everyone knows about him.

Let me tell you some interesting facts about this magical Indian building, which must be seen with my own eyes!

1. The main fallacy of most people is that the Taj Mahal is not a palace, but a tomb, or rather a mausoleum. It was built by the descendant of Tamerlane, the great Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his incredibly beloved wife who died in childbirth. Here is such a love!

2. On the opposite bank of the river, the emperor wanted to build the exact same mausoleum, only of black marble, for himself and connect these two buildings with a bridge of gray marble. But he didn’t have time ... His own son overthrew him from the throne and put him in jail, where Shah Jahano died. After death, they did not begin to build a new mausoleum, but buried with his wife here.

3. The tombs of the imperial couple themselves are located deep in the basement under the building. Once tourists were allowed in, but now the basement is closed, and for tourists they put two marble tombstones in the center of the structure, which are essentially ordinary decorative dummies.

4. The Taj Mahal is built in the best traditions of Mughal architecture, which combines elements of Persian, Indian and Islamic architectural styles, not without reason it is called the "pearl" of Muslim art (and not Indian).

5. Taj Mahal is a five-domed structure with a height of 74 m, with 4 minarets, which are slightly inclined in the direction opposite to the main building. This is done so as not to destroy it in the event of a fall (although it seems quite the opposite in the photo, but this is just an optical illusion and the uncorrected curvature of the optics).

6. The walls and dome of the Taj Mahal are made of polished translucent white marble with inlaid precious stones. This marble has one interesting feature - it is white during the day, pink at dawn, and silver at night. So the Taj Mahal is beautiful at different times of the day.

7. On ordinary days, the Taj Mahal is open only during the day, but on the full moon day it is open for night visits. They say that at night he is even more beautiful than during the day! You need to buy a ticket for a night visit in advance for 24 hours at a special box office. Keep an eye on the lunar calendar.

8. Taj Mahal - a "silver hoof" for the Indian treasury. It is said that up to 5 million people visit it over a year, of which more than 200,000 are from abroad. For locals, a ticket costs only 40 rupees, while foreigners pay a special tax and a ticket for them costs already 1000 rupees. And how much they earn from souvenirs and other Tajmahal nonsense ... By the way, the Indian authorities want to limit the number of tourists in the Taj Mahal to 40 thousand a day, but exclusively at their own expense, because there are not so many tourists, and they pay a lot more. So we should not be afraid, they will let us in anyway!

9. Frankly, the Taj Mahal is impressive! This is an incredibly beautiful place that is definitely worth a visit. I would come here again, but better at night or early in the morning!