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The Complete Taj Mahal
The greatest monument to love, and the lost world of the Agra gardens and their characterful owners, re-created through superb scholarship and evocative illustrations.
The Taj Mahal is the epitome of Mughal art and one of the most famous buildings in the world. Yet there have been few serious studies of it and no full analysis of its architecture and meaning.Ebba Koch is the only scholar who has been permitted to take measurements of the complex. She has been working on the palaces and gardens of Shah Jahan for thirty years and on the Taj Mahal itself—the tomb of the emperor's wife, Mumtaz Mahal—for a decade.
The tomb represents the house of the queen in Paradise, and the author shows how its setting was based on the palace gardens of the great nobles that lined both sides of the river at Agra. She leads the reader through the entire complex of the Taj Mahal, with an explanation of each building and an account of the mausoleum's urban setting, its design and construction, its symbolic meaning, and its history up to the present day.
The book features hundreds of new photographs plus drawings by the Indian architect Richard Barraud that include plans and reconstructions of Agra and the Taj complex as they looked in Shah Jahan's time.
The Taj Mahal is the epitome of Mughal art and one of the most famous buildings in the world. Yet there have been few serious studies of it and no full analysis of its architecture and meaning.Ebba Koch is the only scholar who has been permitted to take measurements of the complex. She has been working on the palaces and gardens of Shah Jahan for thirty years and on the Taj Mahal itself—the tomb of the emperor's wife, Mumtaz Mahal—for a decade.
The tomb represents the house of the queen in Paradise, and the author shows how its setting was based on the palace gardens of the great nobles that lined both sides of the river at Agra. She leads the reader through the entire complex of the Taj Mahal, with an explanation of each building and an account of the mausoleum's urban setting, its design and construction, its symbolic meaning, and its history up to the present day.
The book features hundreds of new photographs plus drawings by the Indian architect Richard Barraud that include plans and reconstructions of Agra and the Taj complex as they looked in Shah Jahan's time.
- GenresHistoryArtNonfiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 28, 2019
I was really impressed by both the book and the author. This is not a coffee table book, though it is lovely enough to be one. Koch knows her stuff, and was the first western scholar allowed to measure the Taj Mahal. The book is beautiful and organizanized well; both the history and a building descriptions are wonderful
July 7, 2008
Great read about the history of the construction of one of the greatest buildings ever
August 13, 2007
Menarik untuk dibaca. Berisi tentang sejarah berdirinya Taj Mahal, yang dibangun karna Terinspirasi dari cinta seorang raja pada permaisuri yang meninggal dikarenakan melahirkan putra terakhir. Dibangun oleh seorang arsitek(atas perintah sang raja)yang kemudian jatuh cinta pada putri ke-2 sang raja.
Akhirnya Taj mahal tsb. dibangun dengan penuh rasa cinta dari arsitek untuk sang putri (yg akhirnya jadi istrinya) dan untuk mengenang cinta sang raja pada permaisuri.
Akhirnya Taj mahal tsb. dibangun dengan penuh rasa cinta dari arsitek untuk sang putri (yg akhirnya jadi istrinya) dan untuk mengenang cinta sang raja pada permaisuri.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews