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 Surrounding
the Taj Mahal are beautiful formal gardens, and leading up to the
main entrance are cypress-lined reflecting pools where sparkling fountains
play. Also on the grounds are a mosque and a guesthouse. Each structure
to the beauty of the others, and together they all make up a whole
whose charm has never been matched.
It
is reported that it took twenty thousand men working for almost twenty
years to complete this unique and delicately feminine memorial. Most
of the workers were from India, but others were brought from Persia,
Iraq, Turkey, and Afghanistan. Artists were brought from as far away
as Italy and Portugal to help decorate the walls, both inside and
outside, with inlays of precious and semiprecious stones, and to create
mosaic designs of great intricacy. One of the mosaic flowers they
created may have as many as three hundred pieces of stone in it.
The walls inside the tomb were
originally covered with gold, and there was a canopy with ten thousand
pearls on it. Many of the jewels and other valuable materials were
later taken from the Taj Mahal by vandals, but the white marble with
its soft warm glow still remains.
The
emperor planned that when the Taj Mahal was completed he would build
a similar tomb of black marble for his own burial place. It was to
be built on the opposite side of the nearby river and was to be connected
to the Taj Mahal by a silver bridge, which would symbolize his happy
marriage with his wife.
But
the second tomb was never built. By the time the Taj Mahal was finished,
the emperor's sons had grown to manhood and were quarrelling with
each other over which one should be the next emperor. Finally the
second son succeeded in banishing one brother and killing the other
two. He then seized the throne and imprisoned his father in a fort
about a mile away, where he was forced to spend the last eight years
of his life—out of sight of the lovely Taj Mahal.
One
day, however, the old emperor happened to notice a tiny mirror embedded
in one of the pillars of the balcony where he was allowed to walk.
Upon closer examination, he discovered that the little mirror, which
was no more than an inch across, reflected the entire Taj Mahal. From
that time until his death, he spent many hours enjoying the miniature
reflection of the beautiful monument he had built for his wife; and
when he died, he was buried there beside her. |
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