SDARL Blog: Visiting the Taj Mahal

Written by Kyle Schell and Brian Bannwarth

Class 9 started the day visiting Taj Mahal one of the 7 Wonders of the World. It is an ivory white mausoleum setting on 42 acres to house the tomb of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s favorite wife in1631 and was completed in 1653. She died in 1631 after giving birth to her 14th child. The grounds also have a mosque and guest quarters and garden. The Emperor’s two other wives are also laid to rest nearby.

The Taj Mahal is an actual moat support by 96 pillars by use of water hydraulics. The large center dome is counter balanced by the four 130 feet tall towers in the four corners of the monument. Mughal Emperor Shah was precise in terms of symmetry when building the Taj Mahal. The only thing asymmetrical was himself as he was laid to rest following his death in 1666 facing west towards Mecca versus facing his wife as required by Islamic law. The grounds are surrounded by a large garden with raised pathways with a large reflecting pool called the Tank of Abundance.

Our guide, Raj, gave us a thorough history and information about the Taj Mahal and the gardens.

After Taj Mahal, we visited Akbar International Marble. Mr Shahid explained the marble inlay process. They would scratch the marble 2.5mm in depth and then inlay the precious and semi-precious stones and seal with a special glue. Akbar International is a leading supplier of marble paintings, marble inlay, and products. They specialize in superior makrana marble as found in the Taj Mahal. It is a crystalizied marble making it nonporous and higher quality than what we see in the United States.

Craftsmen take small slivers of semi-precious stones, then polish, shape, and work the stones
against a grinding stone with their left hand while controlling the speed of the wheel with the other.

The finished product of inlaid marble.

Then off to visit Saint Mother Theresa Orphanage. This orphanage serves the children of special needs as they were abandoned at birth due to deformities both physical and mental. We toured the grounds, living quarters and soup kitchen. It is operated by 9 nuns and serve children from birth onward. It was very basic facility and they work with what they have. We donated clothes, toiletries and money for the children.

We finished the day visiting a local production farm. The farm consisted of 20 acres and produced wheat, mustard, and variety of trees including lime, banana, guava, mango, hard apple, starfruit, and berries. The berries were larger than what we think of and tasted similar to apples. The farmers that worked the farm were very gracious making tea over an open fire for the very first Americans they had ever come in contact with. One of the gentlemen had never even heard of the United States but enjoyed seeing pictures of some of our agriculture practices on our cell phones. There was a 400-year old religious Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva on the farm that we drank our tea by. We also got to see beehives in their natural habitat hanging from tree limbs. There was no modernized machinery on this farm and everything was planted and harvested by hand. After seeing this farm, its clear to see they have a different element to diversified farming.