What if it was possible to experience Taj Mahal in one minute – what should that experience include?
At least Taj Mahal at different times of the day – Taj Mahal at sunrise, in the middle of the day, Taj Mahal in the afternoon, Taj Mahal at sunset and Taj Mahal in the night time.
All this, and immediately in the beginning of the video below, you will see what Taj Mahal looks like before the sunrise, in the twilight, when in reality the Muslim prayer invitations are echoed outside, and how the first sun rays of the morning make the Taj Mahal dome roof glow.
You can also see how the Taj Mahal, known also as Taj-Bibi-ra-Rauza, the Garden-Tomb of the Taj Queen, looks like when seen from the Red Fort in Agra – That is where the ruler Shah Jahan spent his last years of life in prison, captured by his son, looking at the beautiful Taj Mahal. Mausoleum, built for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, as a symbol of eternal love. Historical writings tell us that Mumtaz Mahal, Arjumand Banu Begum by her birth name, had died in her 14th childbirth.
The video will also show brick-red gate walls flanking the park and fountain next to Taj Mahal. The main entrance for Taj Mahal park area is through the brick-red wall gate. In addition, you can see, for example, a red mosque building in the courtyard. The two other queens of Shan Jahan, living under the shadow of Mumtaz, where also buried in this area and have their tombs there.
From the video you can see how many tourists there are around Taj Mahal. Tourists from all over India and around the world have come to see this one of the world’s 7 miracles, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as is also the Red Fort, near Taj Mahal in Agra. Tourists walk in the mausoleum and around it with bare foot or recyclable shoe covers to keep the Taj Mahal’s marble floors clean and undamaged.
The first images of this video were photoshot in 2007 and this video has been shot in various occasions in winter as well as in summer time before the monsoon.
During the winter months in January, people in Agra wore long-sleeved wool and top coats, but in the summer, short-sleeved kurta-shirts and saritops were common.
Taj Mahal literally dazzles its viewer while the sun is shining as the bright sun is reflected in so many different ways from the skilful walls of that building. You get some idea of the size of Taj Mahal when you look at the pictures of tourists in front of the Taj Mahal.
This video Taj Mahal in one minute takes its viewer also very near of Taj Mahal, to the contact distance – you can see close-ups of Taj Mahal wall decorations and wall embossings.
You can also see what the environment of Taj Mahal looks like from inside the building – but Mumtaz Mahal’s and Shah Jahan’s marble tombstones within the mausoleum are left as a mystery to the viewer.
Taj Mahal was built on the banks of the Yamuna River in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, which is also seen on this video, and it took 11 years to build this mausoleum. The construction of the other buildings and the park surrounding the Taj Mahal continued for a few more years on top of that.
What else in this world has been built for so long?
About Taj Mahal – experiences
Hardly any words can fully describe the architectural beauty of Taj Mahal. And even though the pictures tell a lot, they do not cover exhaustively the experience of how cold the Taj Mahal’s marble stone feels, how dazzling the marble is in the sunshine, how many shades of white can be found on the Taj Mahal’s surface, how beautiful is the aquamarine colour in the Taj Mahal’s fountain, how high is the Taj Mahal in relation to the adjacent Yamuna River and what kind of a great landscape opens up behind the Taj Mahal and how do the local inhabitants cool off by the Yamuna River during summer heat.
Or how do you feel after a long journey, on a hot day in India, after all the challenges associated with traveling, when you finally are there in Agra and you have paid the entrance fee to the Taj Mahal, after which you are heading among other people towards the red arch through which you have to enter, and somewhere behind the people’s shoulders you can finally see something dazzling white blinking, and when you go through the gate, all of this opens up to you –
Note: One can adjust the speed of a YouTube -video to one’s liking.
This Indivue video is part of the Travel Opus to India.
You can read about Taj Mahal also in Finnish.
