Exposé sur le Taj Mahal

TAJ MAHAL

The Taj Mahal is located on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra.

*you can have a look at the location on the map just here*

First, let’s rewind a bit and comeback to the creation.

 The construction began in 1631. It was built under the command of Shah Jahan, a Mughal emperor. It was originally constructed to receive the tomb of Shah Jahan’s favorite wife which was named Mumtaz Mahal.

It is one of the most famous mausoleum. A mausoleum is an impressive building housing a tomb or group of tombs.

The mausoleum was completed in 1643 but the project including the gardens and surrounding buildings was achieved after another 10 years which lead us to 1653. Nowadays, it also hosts Shah Jahan’s tomb.

Now let’s talk about the monumental dimensions.

It is a huge monument which has a 580m length and a 300m width. Its high is culminating at 73m. These enormous dimensions have made the Taj Mahal the biggest Indian monument. The mausoleum contains marble and precious rocks which made it extremely expensive. Indeed, the total cost of it is estimated at approximately 1 billion dollar. It is also said that over 1000 elephants were used to transport building materials

*Could you imagine such a construction only to host a tomb*

Moreover, the Taj Mahal is divided in 5 rooms. The main room is the middle part which is also called “the bulb” due to his specific shape. In the central area you can admire two cenotaphs. A cenotaph is a tomb without any corpse in it. It only represents Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal’s tomb. Their real graves are locked and protected in the basement. The other 4 parts are in the 4 corners.

*Show it on the powerpoint*

Each of them are surmounted by a dome and contains rooms.

Two edifices surrounds each side of the mausoleum. In the East, it is the guest’s lodge while on the other side, in the west you can find the famous mosque.

The Taj Mahal is now a worldclass monument and attracts more than 6 million visitors a year and is considered as one of the New 7 Wonders of The World. It is the perfect symbol of eternal love and pain because Shah Jahan ordered its construction out of misery of his dead wife. The gardens represents the Paradise and show that everything must be perfect. It is also part of the Unesco World Heritage.

Finally, we chose to present this mausoleum for many reasons such as its original history or its look which is absolutely breath-taking. It is also a fabulous masterpiece with a perfect symmetry. Emma and myself both fell in love with the magnificience aesthetic and the history behind it. Thank you for listening…

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