Taj Mahal

“The Taj Mahal, or Mehal, (’Gem of Buildings’), is a famous mausoleum, erected at Agra, India, by Shah Jehan for his favorite wife. It is 186 feet square with the corners cut off, and consists of two tiers of arches, with a single-arched porch in the middle of each side, the whole surmounted by a dome 58 feet in diameter and about 210 feet in height, flanked by four octagonal kiosks. The interior is divided into four domed chambers in the corners, and a large central arcaded octagon, all connecting by corridors. The central octagon contains two cenotaphs surrounded by a very noticeable openwork marble rail. The only light admitted enters through the delicately pierced marble screens of the windows. The decoration is especially noticeable for the stone mosaics of flower themes and arabesques, much of them in agate, jasper, and bloodstone. The entire structure stands on a white marble platform 18 feet high and 313 feet square, with tapering cylindrical minarets 133 feet high at the corners."—(Charles Leonard-Stuart, 1911)

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