FUN-travel: Majestic Taj Mahal
November 4, 2016 by Susan Clarke
How deep is your love?
- Well, apparently, very deep…
…for Shah Jahan…
…the Mughal emperor…
…who constructed the Taj Mahal…
…to house the tomb of his favorite wife…
….Mumtaz Mahal…
…a Persian princess…
…with whom he fell in love at the first sight…
…and who died giving birth…
…to their 14th child.
- Taj Mahal means “Crown Palace”…
…and is the centerpiece…
…of a 42-acre complex…
…an ivory-white marble mausoleum…
…yes, seriously, no one ever lived here…
- Commissioned in 1632…
…it took 22 years to construct…
…by some 20,000 artisans…
…at a cost estimated at the time…
…to be around 32 million rupees…
…which in 2015 would be…
…approximately 52.8 billion rupees (US$827 million).
FUN-fact: The Diwali celebration continued at the Oberoi as candle lanterns were lit and then gently floated up into the night sky.