Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is the white marble tomb that Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal on the south bank of the Yamuna River in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, about 230 km from Delhi. It opens every day except Friday, and two to three hours inside suits most visitors, including day-trippers from Delhi.

Mumtaz Mahal died in June 1631 while giving birth to her fourteenth child, and Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor, chose a riverside plot in Agra, then his capital, for her tomb. Work began in 1632. The mausoleum was finished around 1648 and the surrounding mosque, guest house, gardens and gateway by 1653. Shah Jahan was buried beside his wife in 1666, and his cenotaph, placed off-centre next to hers, is the one asymmetrical element in the tomb.

Court records name Ustad Ahmad Lahori as the chief architect, leading a team of designers, calligraphers and craftsmen. More than 20,000 workers took part, and the white marble came from Makrana in Rajasthan. At the end of the 19th century the British viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a major restoration, completed in 1908. UNESCO inscribed the Taj Mahal in 1983.

The whole complex covers about 17 hectares. The red sandstone gateway, the Darwaza-i-Rauza, carries Quranic verses in black marble whose letters grow larger towards the top so they look even in size from the ground. Beyond it the charbagh garden is divided into four parts by raised water channels, with the central pool reflecting the tomb.

The mausoleum stands on a square marble plinth with a minaret at each corner, the minarets leaning slightly outward so that they would fall away from the tomb in an earthquake. The building rises to about 73 metres at the tip of the dome. Inside, an octagonal chamber holds the cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan behind a carved marble screen, while the real graves lie in a crypt below. Pietra dura work, flowers inlaid in coloured stones, decorates the marble surfaces. A red sandstone mosque stands on the west side, matched on the opposite side by a near-identical building called the jawab.

Tickets are sold online through the Archaeological Survey of India and at counters by the gates, with a separate add-on to enter the main tomb. The site closes every Friday. Arrive for the first entry at sunrise, when the marble turns pink and the queues are shortest, and allow about three hours. Security is strict: food, tripods and large bags are not allowed inside, and there are lockers by the gates.

Fast trains such as the Gatimaan Express and the Shatabdi reach Agra Cantt from Delhi in under two hours, and the drive on the Yamuna Expressway takes three to four. Cars park in designated lots about 1 km from the gates, and electric buses and carts cover the last stretch. On the full-moon night and the two nights either side, night viewing admits 400 visitors in batches of 50, except on Fridays and during Ramadan. Mehtab Bagh, a garden 1 km away across the river, gives the classic sunset view of the tomb.