The Taj Mahal ताज महल - masterpieces of the worlds

The reason why people come to Agra is very obvious: to lay their eyes on the impressive Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal (pronounced /tɑdʒ mə'hɑl/ ---- Hindi: ताज महल; Persian/Urdu: تاج محل) is a mausoleum located in Agra, India, built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

The Taj Mahal (also "the Taj") is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was cited as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."

While the white domed marble mausoleum is its most familiar component, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. Building began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, and employed thousands of artisans and craftsmen.The Persian architect, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri is generally considered to be the principal designer of the Taj Mahal.

One of the famous hotel in Agra


The Agra Fort accross the river is also a very impressive structure. It was built by the same Moghul rulers who built the Taj. Some people say that the Shaj Jahan's son, involved in some serious trouble with his father, took his father away from the Taj and locked him in teh octagonal tower with a view on the Taj. In this way, he could at least prevent his father from becoming even more famous. Sjah Jahan had the intention of building a second Taj in black marble just on the other site of the river in order to construct the perfect symmetrical picture (and his own mausoleum of course).

Most people visit Agra on a daytrip from Delhi. But the city is well worth an overnight stay. If you are traveling from Delhi to Varanasi it is an ideal place to spend the night.

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All Fundies are Alike

UT ON THE Innertubes, you can find a bunch of cool religion talk shows. One such is BBC 4’s Beyond Belief, a 30 minute weekly that touches on a wider variety of religious and ethical issues. The Episode on 26 January was about the Ramayana, an important Hindu Scripture. There were three guests on the show, including one who was quite clearly the token Hindu Fundamentalist.

What surprised me was how exactly like Christian FUndies he was. He was certain of a literal reading of the Ramayana; certain, even, that a later, more-embellished form of the text was the authentic text, even though scholars had found earlier versions; he was sure, for example, that the God-Man, Ram, had lived 100,000 years ago in a glorious kingdom. Of course there is no evidence of mankind at all more than 60 or 80,000 years ago and certainly not in glorious kingdoms reaching all over the world…

Unless you ask a Hindu Fundamentlist, who will get all “Creationist” on you and insist the human species is hundreds of thousands of years old.

The entire conversation was very interesting. You can listen to it on the website

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