The Taj Mahal

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I have written about the Taj Mahal before. Not sure if it was on myLot. I found another interesting fact today though, that I don’t think I wrote about before. Most of us know that the Taj Mahal (usually translated “Crown Palace”) was built by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (who ruled India from 1628 to 1658) in memory of his second wife, Mumtaz. What I learned recently was that his wife died in childbirth, while giving birth to her FOURTEENTH child. Yes, I said fourteenth. She deserved a monument, I would say! It took 22 years and the work of 20,000 workers and craftsmen to finish the building. Over 1,000 elephants were used to bring materials, such as the white marble, from all over India to the tomb’s site in Agra. The Taj Mahal sits on the bank of the Yamuna River about 120 miles south of New Delhi. The dome of white marble with its four flanking minarets sits on a white marble terrace atop a red sandstone base. Inside there is a jewel-inlaid cenotaph of the queen who is buried there. Later, after his death, the Shah was also buried there. Thousands of tourists visit the Taj Mahal every year. Have you ever been there? I would love to see it. Picture by Pixabay