Adventures in India (and Malaysia too!): The Taj Mahal

Our tour guide, Daniyel, was very patient with our crazy picture-taking. We later determined that between the three of us, we took about 700 pictures in the 24 hours that we were in Agra.

As we got closer to the monument itself, the beautiful inlay appeared more evident. From far away, the monument looks like it is made entirely of white marble. When you get closer however, you can see the intricate details and patterns in the inlay work. The overall pattern of the carving and inlay is a floral one, but around all the doors and archways, the inlay is of various verses of the Qur’an in an elaborate calligraphy script. The Qur’an verse inlay appears to be consistent in size, but the marble-workers had a very clear understanding of perception and the inlay that is farther away near the top of the monument is actually of a much larger size, so as to appear the same size when viewed.

The detail of all the work was really stunning. As I had mentioned in the previous posting, the building itself only took 8 years to construct, but it was all the embellishment and detail work that took the additional 14 years. The inlay is still in wonderful condition in many places; in some places, visitors have chipped out pieces of the semi-precious stones to take home as souvenirs. The British were actually blamed several times for removing items of value from the Taj Mahal and also the Agra Fort, which we visited on Sunday. I’m not sure how accurate that claim is, or if it is just leftover resentment from so many years of British occupation. There is a wide variety of the semi-precious gemstones that were used in the inlay work; among them are jasper, lapis, and carnelian.

The construction and overall layout was very symmetrical; even the interior of the monument had a symmetrical floorplan. When facing the monument, there is a mosque to the left, and a mirror image to the right. The mosque needed to face Mecca, but since there needed to be balance, an empty building was constructed to balance it out. The photo on the left shows the mosque; the one on the right shows the “mirror” building peeking out from behind the trees.