sheilsoft
09-28-2003, 11:01 AM
When we were in India, we had the honour of watching the sun come up on the Taj Mahal, our small party of 14 being the only people there. It was truly magical and very serene.
Here's a couple of manipulations of the sun coming up on the Taj Mahal...
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/28-Sep-2003/23557-tajdawn.jpg
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/28-Sep-2003/23557-taj.jpg
We learnt some amazing facts about the place, which are generally not known.
The temple of course is a mausoleum for the empress Mahal whose husband loved her so much he decided to build the most beautiful palace for her. All the walls are made of pure white marble embedded with semi-precious stones. If you shine a torch anywhere on the marble, the light courses along the veins of the marble and lights up the individual stones. The four towers lean out at an angle of about 3 degrees, so that if there was an earthquake, they would fall outwards.
The Taj Mahal complex is very big over many acres, set out with beautiful gardens, walls, buildings and gateways. Everything in the complex is perfectly symmetrical, whichever way you draw a line... except for the Taj Mahal itself which sits to the back of the grounds. Why?
Well, and I never knew this until I went there... there is a river running behind the Taj Mahal, and on the land on the opposite bank, there is the foundations for another Taj Mahal, which was to have been made of black marble! If completed, it would have made the symmetry complete, the white version being this world, the black one, the afterlife. Apparently when the emperor died, his son made off with the money and didn't complete the project. Think how amazing it would have looked!
Sorry to ramble on, but I'd thought I'd share that bit of info on a truly amazing place.
Regards,
Howard
Here's a couple of manipulations of the sun coming up on the Taj Mahal...
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/28-Sep-2003/23557-tajdawn.jpg
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/28-Sep-2003/23557-taj.jpg
We learnt some amazing facts about the place, which are generally not known.
The temple of course is a mausoleum for the empress Mahal whose husband loved her so much he decided to build the most beautiful palace for her. All the walls are made of pure white marble embedded with semi-precious stones. If you shine a torch anywhere on the marble, the light courses along the veins of the marble and lights up the individual stones. The four towers lean out at an angle of about 3 degrees, so that if there was an earthquake, they would fall outwards.
The Taj Mahal complex is very big over many acres, set out with beautiful gardens, walls, buildings and gateways. Everything in the complex is perfectly symmetrical, whichever way you draw a line... except for the Taj Mahal itself which sits to the back of the grounds. Why?
Well, and I never knew this until I went there... there is a river running behind the Taj Mahal, and on the land on the opposite bank, there is the foundations for another Taj Mahal, which was to have been made of black marble! If completed, it would have made the symmetry complete, the white version being this world, the black one, the afterlife. Apparently when the emperor died, his son made off with the money and didn't complete the project. Think how amazing it would have looked!
Sorry to ramble on, but I'd thought I'd share that bit of info on a truly amazing place.
Regards,
Howard