Architecture of the Taj: It took 20,000 workmen twenty-two years (6132-1654) to build this marvel of a marble tomb. Ustad Isa, a Persian architect is said to have been the main designer of the Taj. Many others have figured as designers and craftsmen for the Taj Mahal: Geronimo Veroneo the venetian goldsmith; the silversmith Austin of Bordeaux, the Persians Ustad Ahmad and Ustad Hamid and so on. But the biggest influence was Shah Jahan himself.

The design of the monument is impressive: dating to the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus,the Tomb of Timur Lane (Gur Amir) at Samarkhand, to the relatively more recent Humayun's and Khan Khanan's tombs in Delhi. A common perception of progression through the landscape led the builders to a scheme of a traditional `char bagh', a lucid Islamic composition of frames and closures, of walls concealing and gates revealing in a delicate balance of water, land and sky.

The Taj Mahal is one of the Greatest Wonders of the World.

By Pradeep Kanakarajan and Kumar Periasamy