"The Taj Mahal with the Fountains",
View of the Taj Mahal with reflecting pool and figures in the foreground, Photo year 1859, printed in 1862.
Photographer- Felice Beato (1832 - 1909), Printed in
1862 By- Henry Hering (1814 - 1893).
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The Taj Mahal was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (1628–1658) to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself.
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The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around ₹32 million, which in 2020 would be approximately ₹70 billion (about US $1 billion). The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by Ustad Ahmad Lahori, the emperor’s court architect. Various types of symbolism have been employed in the Taj to reflect natural beauty and divinity.
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