A monument to one woman for her acts of service to her husband :The Taj Mahal
The Taj was built by Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife , Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child in 1631. It is reported that the death left the emperor so heartbroken that his hair turned grey over night.( kids do that to you too! )
Construction began in the same year and over 20,000 people from India and central Asia worked on the main building for 8 years but the whole complex was not completed until 1653. There are exquisite marble screens and marble inlay work ( pietra dura) made with semi precious stones into the building surrounding the two tombs- Shah and Mumtaz. Basically this is one of the most expensive ostentatious mausoleums in the world .
As families go this family had slightly more strife than most, and the Shah was over thrown by his son and imprisoned in Agra Fort not long after it was finished. From here the Shah could only gaze at the Taj from through a window until his death in 1666. ( thats kids for you, give them the shirt of your back and they want more!)
The Taj is one of the 7 manmade wonders of the world and was designated a World Heritage Site in 1983. It has recently undergone huge restoration due to the exterior being damaged by the pollution from vehicles . Now only non polluting vehicles are allowed within a few hundred metres .
I find that last piece of information interesting as you cant even get a few hundred metres of the Taj in a vehicle anyway although some Auto Rickshaws are now CNG and bicycle Rickshaws are non polluters ( except for the drivers), so I gather that they are referring to .
Any woman who gives birth to 14 children deserves a monument as far as I am concerned !
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