Chicago – October 15, 2025
CEO Chicago Patriot News Engr Mujeeb Osman and Engr Mohammed Abdul Majid visited the magnificent Taj Mahal in Agra on October 14. They visited one of the eight wonders of the world and learned about the rich history of the building. The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum (funerary building) completed in 1648 on the south bank of the Yamuna River on the outskirts of Agra in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The Iconic Building:
The core of the building, as well as the dome and the minarets , is made of locally fired bricks , which are clad both inside and out with white marble slabs . The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan had the building built in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal (Arjumand Bano Begum, later also Mumtaz-uz-Zamani ), who died in 1631.
The building is made of fired bricks clad with white marble. The mausoleum stands on a square base about 5 m high. The floor plan of the mausoleum is an irregular octagon , which is topped by a nearly 30 m high, bulbous outer dome resting on a drum with a maximum diameter of 26.65 m; this in turn is surrounded by four small, open, pavilion-like chhatri structures with small, non-bulged domes. On the facade below the large central dome, on the four long sides of the building, there is a large central iwan arch with a niche, flanked by smaller arches in two levels.
The facade is not completely mirror-symmetrical. The four minarets arranged around the main building with two aisles are slightly inclined away from the building so that they do not collapse onto the main building in the event of an earthquake .
Beneath the inner dome is an octagonal central chamber containing the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. To the right and left of it are several smaller rooms. In all four corner rooms, a spiral staircase leads to the roof.
