The Taj Mahal

THE TAJ MAHAL by DAVID CARROLL NEWSWEEK A white jewel enclosed in a frame of dark cypresses, the Taj Mahal seems to float over the hot flat Indian plain. Its distinctive silhouette, mirrored in the placid surface of a long reflecting pool, is instantly identifiable, for the shimmering tomb is one of the most frequently photographed structures of the world. Built by the seventeenth-century Mogul emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his beloved wife Mumatz Mahal, the tomb complex survives as an enduring testament to their devotion to one another. Mumtaz Mahal, the highborn beauty who bore her royal husband fourteen children during the nineteen years of their marriage - who died in 1631 giving birth to the last - lies in a white marble sarcophagus at the very heart of the tomb. Her adoring husband, who ended his years as a prisoner of his usurper-son, Aurangzeb, is buried alongside his queen.