The gateway to the garden is very grand; it is of red stone, inlaid with marble, and surmounted by a row of little marble cupolas.
Through a magnificent pair of brass gates you enter a dome, fifty feet in diameter, through which you pass on to the Tāj. The spandrils of all the arches are filled up with elegantly-arranged groups of flowers; there are also broad inscriptions running round the greater arches, both at the gate and the Tāj.
The approach is from the south, through the grand gateway of the garden; up the whole length of which, in the centre of fine trees, is a line of beautiful fountains; the vista is finished by the Tāj. At the end of this fountain-adorned avenue, you ascend by a hidden staircase of twenty solid blocks of marble, and arrive on the terrace above, formed of the same material, from which you go on to the interior of the Tāj, which is an octagon, surmounted by a dome seventy feet in diameter. The lower range of arches has an entablature, which is filled with extracts from the Kur’ān inlaid in black marble.
GROUND PLAN OF THE TOMB OF THE TĀJ.
The general form of the building is square, with the angles cut off, each front having a large elliptic gothic arch (with a very deep recess) in the centre; and the two wings have each two smaller arches, one above the other, and recessed in the same manner as the larger ones; the obtuse angles are divided in the same way, and appear to belong commonly to each of the four fronts, as you happen to stand opposite them. The whole is surmounted by the great dome, surrounded with four smaller ones. Strangers, when visiting the Tāj, are so much occupied in viewing the centre apartment, which contains the tombs, that they often omit visiting the eight rooms that surround that central apartment; four of which are of square, and four of octagonal form; on the upper floor are eight rooms of a similar description. The ground plan annexed I copied from an original plan, shown to me at the tomb.
Ground Plan of the Tomb of the Tāj.
فاني پارکس
It covers an area of two hundred feet square, upon a terrace of white marble, about twenty feet above the one of stone, and three hundred and fifty feet square. At each angle is a minaret upon an octagonal base, eighty feet in circumference: the bottom of the shaft is twenty feet in diameter, so that I should think the minarets are at least one hundred and fifty feet high. The minarets, of white marble, inlaid with precious stones, are specimens of the most beautiful architecture it is possible to imagine. Lastly; the stone or lower terrace extends on each side of the Tāj, and is finished by a mosque on each side, and four beautiful octagonal bastions, surrounded by dark red stone verandahs, covered with elegant marble domes. The whole extent of the lower terrace is, I should say, full nine hundred feet; the pavement is inlaid with black and white marble.