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Taj MahalThe Taj Mahal mausoleum stands at one end of the garden adorned with fountains and marble pavements. The garden contains four water channels to echo the four rivers of the Islamic Paradise. It rises from a platform 313 ft (95 m) on a side, bearing a white marble minaret at each corner; the enclosure, 186 ft (57 m) on a side, has truncated corners and a high portal on each side. The white marble exterior is inlaid with semiprecious stones arranged in Arabic inscriptions (designed by a local artist Amanat Khan, who was Shah Jahan's calligrapher), floral designs, and arabesques, and the salient features of the interior are accented with agate, jasper, and colored marbles. The roofing dome, on the inside, is 80 ft (24.4m) high and 50 ft (15.2 m) in diameter; outside it forms a bulb, which tapers to a spire topped by a crescent. The tomb chamber, with its two sarcophagi, is an octagonal room in the center of the edifice (the royal couple, however, are buried in an underground vault). The chamber is softly illuminated by the light that passes through double screens of intricately carved marble set high in the walls.
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- Yamuna
Yamuna or Jumna, river, c.850 mi (1,370 km) long, rising in the Himalayas, N India, and flowing generally SE, through the Shiwalik Range, past Delhi, to the Ganges River at Allahabad, Uttar Pr...
- Agra
Agra, former province, N central India. The presidency, or province, of Agra was created in 1833 when the British partitioned the Bengal presidency. In 1836, Agra was renamed the North West Pr...
- Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan or Shah Jehan, 1592–1666, Mughal emperor of India (1628–58), son and successor of Jahangir. His full name was Khurram Shihab-ud-din Muhammad. He rebelled against his father in 1622 ...
- grille
Grille, in architecture, a system of bars, usually of decorative metalwork, forming an openwork barrier or enclosure. In its usual materials of wrought iron or bronze, it has been favored for ...
- Mughal
Mughal or Mogul, Muslim empire in India, 1526–1857. The dynasty was founded by Babur, a Turkish chieftain who had his base in Afghanistan. Babur's invasion of India culminated in the battle of...
- mausoleum
Mausoleum, a sepulchral structure or tomb, especially one of some size and architectural pretension, so called from the sepulcher of that name at Halicarnassus, Asia Minor, erected (c.352 B.C....
- tomb
Tomb, vault or chamber constructed either partly or entirely above ground as a place of interment. Although it is often used as a synonym for grave, the word is derived from the Greek tymbos [...
- Mughal art and architecture
Mughal art and architecture, a characteristic Indo-Islamic-Persian style that flourished on the Indian subcontinent during the Mughal empire (1526–1857). This new style combined elements of Is...
- Delhi
Delhi, union territory and city, N central India. The union territory, officially the National Capital Territory of Delhi (2001 provisional pop. 13,782,976), 573 sq mi (1,484 sq km), is on the...
- dome
Dome, a roof circular or (rarely) elliptical in plan and usually hemispherical in form, placed over a circular, square, oblong, or polygonal space. Domes have been built with a wide variety of...
