The Taj Mahal
A tomb for a wife becomes the defining building of Mughal India.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 21 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Shah Jahan begins the Taj Mahal in 1632 for Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth, and completes it over two decades with some 20,000 workers and materials brought from across Asia. Its plan is precisely symmetrical apart from the later addition of Shah Jahan's own cenotaph, and the marble inlay uses jasper, jade, turquoise and lapis. It represents a peak of a Persian, Indian and Islamic architectural synthesis.