Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal (German: Taj Mahal, Persian تاج محل - Taj Mahal, "the crown of the place" or "Crown Palace"; Devanagari: ताजमहल) is a 58 m wide and 56 m high mausoleum (grave Mosque) in Agra in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on a 100 m × 100 m large marble platform was built. It has also been placed before him a 18-hectare garden in the center is an oblong water basin. The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ordered it built in memory of his late wife in 1631 Main Mumtaz Mahal (Arjumand Bano Begum).

History
The construction of the Taj Mahal was begun shortly after the death of Mumtaz Mahal in 1631 and completed until 1648 [1]. Participation was more than 20,000 craftsmen from all over South and Central Asia, and various architects, including Ustad Ahmad Lahori, and today from Badakhshan (Afghanistan), originally Persian Abu Fazel. The Persian architecture goes back to him, he skilfully blended them with Indian elements into a harmonious masterpiece of Indo-Islamic architecture.

A widespread legend has it that even an identical structure was originally made of black marble Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for himself on the other side of the river Yamuna was planned, which was not realized, this excavation (run easily seen in satellite images). It turns out that the Black Taj Mahal has never existed. On the opposite side of the "white" Taj Mahal was a park with a large pool of water. The white Taj Mahal has been mirrored in this basin, and left it in the water appear black (Source: Realm of the Warrior - The Indian Moguls, directed by Sally Aitken). Shah Jahan was deposed by his son Muhammad previously Aurangzeb Alamgir and spent the rest of his life as a prisoner. In 1666 he was buried beside his wife. His grave destroyed the symmetry of the building, which may be regarded as evidence that he intended to erect its own monument, especially since he keep to this symmetry, to build a rest house on the eastern side of the building, the mosque on the western side is quite similar. In addition, the Taj Mahal is not the center of tended gardens, as is customary in Persian tombs, but on the northern border, which also suggests that another tomb was planned on the opposite bank of the river for the two separate buildings would in turn now the center of the garden area was, as the Persian understanding from heaven as of a Charbagh (garden divided into four quadrants, the four Wasserkänale from a central building that is supposed to represent the throne of God to flow in four directions) is equivalent. Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, for example, remains faithful to this conception, where the mausoleum is located entirely in the middle of a Charbagh.

The Taj Mahal is composed of materials which were brought from all over India and Asia. Over 1,000 elephants were used for transportation, 28 different types of precious and semiprecious stones were inserted into the marble.

The four arranged around the main building minarets are slightly inclined so that they fall in the event of an earthquake away from the main building. As seen from where Mecca is located in the west, is located in this direction a mosque. Symmetrically located with the same floor plan in the East a guest house.

According to another legend, the British colonial rulers were planning under the governor, Lord William Bentinck in the 19 Century, the much neglected buildings for sale piecemeal at auction in England. But there are no proofs for this story. According to Bentinck's biographer John Rosselli, but this story grew out of them, that was certainly trying to profit by selling parts of the Red Fort and other archaeological finds from Agra.

350-year celebration
On 27 September 2004, the government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, at a ceremony officially the 350th Anniversary of the completion of the Taj Mahal committed. For half a year has been recognized in other events, the huge importance of the structure. The ceremony took place in order to protect the mausoleum, instead of about two kilometers distance from it.

The date of completion in 1654 is debatable. The critics rely on three arguments:

* The then court chronicler Abdul Hamid Lahori wrote in a document that was half a year after the death of Mumtaz Mahal (had died on 17 June 1631) started construction and the construction period had amounted to twelve years. Accordingly, the mausoleum would have been completed already 1644th
* An inscription above the main entrance contains the year 1648 as a completion indication.
* From 1652 there is a letter from Prince Aurangzeb, the son of Shah Jahan, who says that the Taj Mahal was of repair.

In the local media, there was speculation that the festivities would be held to revive tourism in the region. In contrast, the Tourism Minister said that the cause discovered that two books which contain the date. What books these were, however, he never announced.

Significance Today
The Taj Mahal was incorporated in 1983 in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, the Taj Mahal is because of the perfect harmony of its proportions, as one of the most beautiful and important examples of the Mughal style in Islamic art. It also is used for worship of the Muslim citizens.

2007, the Taj Mahal was selected as part of a private initiative, according to the organizers one of the "new seven wonders." Both the official guardian of the UNESCO World Heritage Site as, for example, Egypt (Ancient Wonders of the World: Great Pyramid of Giza) distanced themselves from the private as a "campaign" without scientific criteria designated choice