Restoring the Taj Mahal
This year, millions of tourists will visit the marble monument—and the Indian government is restoring it for millions more
- By Kathleen Burke
- Smithsonian magazine, January 2008, Subscribe
Every year for the past decade or so, more than three million travelers have visited India's Taj Mahal. The white marble monument—completed over some 15 years by the emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth in 1631—rises on a three-acre site on the Yamuna River in the northern city of Agra.
By the mid-1990s, the Taj's splendors—such as the 187-foot, minaret-flanked dome, fronted by a reflecting pool and surrounded by a walled garden—had deteriorated markedly, prompting a multimillion-dollar restoration effort spearheaded by the Indian government. The massive undertaking includes scrubbing the marble exterior and a restoration of the massive red sandstone main gates, including the replacement of semiprecious inlay.
The restoration is expected to take several years. Even before the scaffolding comes down, however, visitors will discover that the monument's aura of serenity—long associated with this symbol of romantic love—remains intact. Today, access to the site is regulated by the use of timed tickets; visitors stroll among the gardens and gleaming interior spaces in an atmosphere closer to the tranquillity envisioned by Shah Jahan himself. This significant preservation project, says Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund, demonstrates the progress that can be achieved by "public-private partnerships." Long-term plans, she adds, include a re-creation of the site's original gardens.
Subscribe now for more of Smithsonian's coverage on history, science and nature.
← Previous Sizing Up the Great Wall |
Smithsonian Life List: 43 Places to See Before You Die |
Next → Guarding Petra |
Comments (6)
ITS VERY BEAUTIFUL
Posted by BRYAN on October 13,2012 | 03:32 AM
thanks for using my photo!
www.yuliang11.com
Posted by wong yu liang on March 24,2010 | 03:11 AM
Is 187 feet the height of the taj mahal?
Posted by zenda star on March 23,2010 | 08:22 AM
How many people visit the taj mahal each year?
Posted by zenda star on March 19,2010 | 08:23 AM
Why would you restore it when it is a nice place already? I am all for keeping it up and everything but its not necessarry to redo it!!
Posted by on November 5,2009 | 01:47 PM
How could one go about learning more about the "long-term plans [that] include a re-creation of the site's original gardens"? I mean specifics, like the design, the plant lists, the specialists responsible for making it happen? Thank you in advance.
Posted by Ottoline Lyme on June 30,2008 | 01:19 PM