Photo: Biswarup Gangully

Taj Mahal Agra

The Taj Mahal is easily the most celebrated building in India, if not the world. The monument is actually constructed of brick(!), but is covered everywhere with a stunning white marble veneer that marvelously reflects, from its southern exposure, the changing quality of light as the day progresses incrementally from dawn to dusk. Most visitors will want to spend a whole day here, in order to fully appreciate the building's ever-changing beauty.

Much of the building's appeal is due to its geometry, that consists of variations on the square; its fourfold symmetry, punctuated by minarets at the four corners, is continued and further subdivided in the octagonal plan interior, surmounted by its magnificent dome. On the exterior, each of the building's four corners is chamfered ("cut off") and inset, effectively disguising the underlying square plan. Numerous lengths on the building are thus related as the square root of 2, ie, the diagonal of a square, rather than the Golden Ratio of classical European architecture.

A recent report (2011) from Smithsonian Magazine describes alarming damage due to subsidence and pollution.