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00:02the Taj Mahal a monument of unparalleled almost impossible beauty people say that
00:11having had been recreated on earth today investigations are revealing an
00:18astonishing news story to this magnificent mausoleum it's really
00:23strange now that I know it I can never not see it a set of hidden clues left by an
00:32emperor obsessed with increasing his own power
00:37can cracking the Taj Mahal's hidden symbolic code reveal the truth behind
00:43this marvel to solve these mysteries we will blow the Taj Mahal apart we'll look
00:53within its flawless marble walls and beneath its gravity-defying dome to reveal
01:02the incredible secrets of this iconic wonder
01:14millions visit India's Taj Mahal every year drawn to its striking beauty and
01:21touched by the tragic tale at its heart Emperor Shah Jahan began building the
01:28Taj in 1631 a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal lost giving birth to their 14th
01:37child and it has been a symbol of love ever since but hidden within these walls
01:45lies another story an astonishing tale of power obsession and betrayal every famous
01:54thing whether a person or a monument has some mysteries behind it what's
02:01interesting about the Taj Mahal is that people associated with love but there is
02:06so much more to that story the Taj Mahal is a masterpiece the gigantic mausoleum sits on a
02:18100,000 square foot marble platform surrounded by four identical 140 foot towers the buildings domes and
02:33arches are a symphony of symmetrical design and behind 12 foot thick walls and eight walled tomb built for a
02:42tragic
02:43empress said to be perfect from every angle this majestic structure is both a
02:50building and a work of art
02:57the Taj Mahal has become an icon of its home country its stunning outline is
03:04familiar from countless films and photographs of India in some ways the Taj Mahal has
03:10come to be associated with being particularly Indian whatever that's
03:14supposed to be but how Indian is it really
03:23Aditya Dhahnapal believes the Taj's shape and structure help reveal a very different origin
03:33the best place to uncover the Taj's true story is just outside the building in the bustling streets of Agra
03:41what's interesting is that you can look at these structures and you can try to piece together a story about
03:47who built this place
03:49what kind of influences from across the world are feeding into the architecture
03:55the Taj building seems to stand out from those that surround it
04:01as in Shah Jahan's time the majority of India's population follow the Hindu religion a belief reflected in the
04:10style of buildings Hindu shrines and temples are bright and colorful very different
04:17to the sober mausoleum just a few hundred yards away
04:24Hindus worship a diverse array of gods
04:28within Hinduism there are numerous gods and goddesses and they have a lot of animals associated with them
04:34so for instance Ganesha is the elephant headed god and it's fairly common to have a little idol or a
04:40picture of your god of choice in the dashboard of your car or in your shop or house
04:48as a tomb built in honor of an Empress the Taj represents a deeply sacred structure but it has none
04:57of the imagery of the Hindu religion
05:04the walls of the Taj reflect Emperor Shah Jahan's very different religion
05:10the four tall towers are minarets more commonly seen on mosques in the Middle East
05:17the pointed archways on top of the windows and gateways are an ancient Iraqi design
05:25what looks like intricate patterns around the walls are entire passages from the Quran
05:32and inside the mausoleum each of the eight walls symbolizes one of the eight gates to paradise
05:41the Taj is richly infused with the imagery and symbolism of Islam
05:50this mausoleum isn't just a symbol of the Shah's love
05:55it's also a display of his personal power and beliefs
06:00Shah Jahan was an Islamic outsider occupying a largely Hindu land
06:09his ancestors conquered from the east creating a vast territory known as the Mughal Empire
06:16he had power over a quarter of the world's population
06:21how did he manage to win over so many different people
06:29above the rooftops Aditya spots a clue
06:33at the distance you can see the Taj Mahal
06:35and right in front of us we can see a Hindu temple
06:40what's similar between the Hindu temple and the Taj Mahal
06:44is this pointing filial on top of both of these structures
06:48at the very top of the Taj sits a shape seen in Hindu religious ceremonies
06:55they're both in some ways meant to resemble a kalash or like a pot
07:00which is an auspicious symbol within India
07:02so you can see that there is a sympathy towards local Hindu practices
07:08the Shah realized that imposing his culture and religion on the local population
07:13might win him more enemies than friends
07:17Shah Jahan literally means king of the world
07:19and even if he didn't control the entire world
07:21he kind of imagined that all the cultures of the world need to blend within India
07:28he had to be a shrewd politician to keep control of a massive empire
07:32made up of many different faiths
07:36but thanks to the laws of his religion
07:39he was still able to display his true conviction in a very discreet way
07:45within Islam there is a notion that Allah is never to be represented in his physical form
07:51and what is usually done is that the worship of God is done through symbols
07:57unlike the colorful gods seen in Hindu buildings
08:00human and animal imagery is largely forbidden in Islam
08:06so the Shah laid a set of hidden clues in the Taj
08:10a secret symbolic code that revealed his true faith
08:14only to Islamic observers
08:19the mausoleum floor bears an eight pointed star
08:23repeated in a potentially infinite geometric pattern
08:26a reminder of the infinite nature of Allah
08:31the perfectly proportioned calligraphy on the gateways is an art form in itself
08:36to an Islamic eye it symbolizes God's love of beauty
08:43and the walls of the tomb are covered in ornate floral engravings
08:48evoking the rich abundance of paradise
08:53the Taj was not built just as a monument to lost love
08:57it's a billboard for the Shah to spell out his beliefs
09:04and now researchers are uncovering a whole host of different messages encoded in the Taj's walls
09:13what does the obsessive hunt for one very particular stone
09:17reveal about the Shah's lust for supreme power
09:32legend states India's Taj Mahal was built out of undying love
09:38driven by Emperor Shah Jahan's grief after his wife's death
09:43but the building also holds clues to different motives
09:49the Shah's unusual choice of stone reveals his megalomania
09:56he never missed an opportunity to promote his own power
10:02previous Mughal emperors had monumental mausoleums and forts built largely from the local red sandstone
10:09the Shah broke with tradition
10:11and used rare and expensive pure white marble
10:18so why choose this particular stone just for a tomb for his late wife?
10:24because it is using only that kind of marble the Taj is wonder of wonder
10:34this massive tomb contains several thousand half-ton blocks of pure white marble
10:42and to support this mass of heavy rock
10:45a 12 foot thick supporting skeleton
10:49millions of locally sourced red sandstone bricks form a hidden backbone
10:57there is around 20 times more sandstone in the building than marble
11:04iron dowels anchor the marble firmly in place
11:09so the Taj's precious facade never slips
11:17why did the Shah go through all this trouble just for a skin of white marble?
11:24the answer lies in the hidden propaganda message this stone could carry
11:32today there is a rare chance to find out just how far he went for the pure white marble
11:37he so desperately desired
11:43Munazar Ali oversees an urgent project to restore the Taj's main gateway
11:50you can see here the red sandstone panels is totally worn out
11:54here, 300 yards from the main tomb
11:58the Shah used white marble mostly as a decorative inlay
12:03as rain and sun wear sandstone away the decoration disappears
12:09when the inlay panel is lost the inlay pieces are also falling down
12:15replicating the Shah's building plan is no simple task for Munazar
12:20we are using only traditional kind of mortar
12:23traditional kind of marble, traditional kind of sandstone
12:27and from the same queries
12:30so no compromise
12:32because the Taj is Taj
12:36white marble was key to a message the Shah wanted to proclaim with his mausoleum
12:42but to begin to decipher this message
12:44means first finding the Shah's stone
12:50the nearest source lies over 200 miles away
12:53the Makrana marble mines
12:58Abinindan Bansal runs one of the quarries here
13:02these quarries are ancient 400 to 500 years back
13:06my family is looking after these mines for the last 120 years
13:12extracting the right color of marble is a real challenge
13:19first miners pry off a three-ton chunk of stone
13:26then cranes carefully raise the block to the surface
13:30even using today's heavy lifting equipment
13:33the process is difficult and dangerous
13:38in the Shah's time it was even tougher
13:44first quarry workers descended into 200 foot deep trenches
13:48to reach the pure marble seam
13:51using simple hammers and chisels
13:53they broke away six-ton blocks
13:57rope and pulley cranes operated by elephants
14:01raised the marble from the trench
14:04each block had to be hauled 200 miles to the Taj
14:09on site specialist stonemasons split the blocks
14:14and worked them into perfect tiles
14:18ropes and pulleys allowed the builders to once again
14:21harness the power of the elephant
14:24to raise the tiles into place
14:32creating pure white marble tiles is a daunting task even today
14:38even within a few inches colors can change dramatically
14:43in this mine all qualities come out from the same rock
14:46you see the marble and you see that it has got a gray portion
14:50the semi gray portion and this two and a half feet portion is pure white
14:54from this we extract the pure white marble
14:59workers carefully align each block so the white marble vein runs the right way
15:05then they use five foot long saws to slice up the block
15:10dividing it into sections by color
15:16after a day of hard work
15:19Abinadhan has marble tiles to match the Taj
15:23this is the pure white marble which is extracted from the big piece
15:27and it is the most expensive marble which is used in the Taj Mel today
15:31and the property of this marble you can see
15:35it does not change color
15:39the effort required to obtain pure white marble is immense
15:43so why did the Shah choose it?
15:47the answer lies in the types of buildings that usually order marble from Makrana
15:53white stone buildings are often the houses of Hindu priests
15:58the highest social class
16:02so perhaps the Shah's white walls were a piece of propaganda
16:06aimed directly at the local population
16:10a way to declare almost godlike power over his people
16:17once complete this facade will dazzle today's tourists
16:21but it once would have made locals think of the Shah's supreme authority
16:30and there's even more to the Shah's symbolic code
16:35the Taj's gravity defying dome is key to the sacred status of the building
16:42but how it was built is a complete mystery
16:46will modern day engineers crack its secret?
16:51and
16:52does the building's extreme symmetry conceal an even deeper code?
16:58a symbolic master plan
17:01it's really strange
17:02now that I know it I can never not see it
17:15India's Taj Mahal is more than a mausoleum built for a lost love
17:21the building's structure contains a set of hidden messages
17:25that reveal the very different motivations behind Emperor Shah Jahan's masterpiece
17:32the Taj's dome is its most spectacular feature
17:36almost half the height of the entire mausoleum and spanning 60 feet
17:43it forms a crucial element of the Shah's symbolic code
17:51but it's also the source of this building's most enduring construction mystery
17:57because no accurate accounts were made at the time it was built
18:01no one knows exactly how the dome was put together
18:06how they did building at that time
18:10and exactly what the structure consists of
18:13we're not really sure
18:18structural engineer Steve McKechnie heads a team who specialize in designing large and unconventional buildings
18:26including the Singapore Sports Hub
18:28the biggest dome in the world today
18:32now this team is going to use their modern day expertise to investigate a nearly 400 year old legend surrounding
18:39the Taj's dome
18:44the challenge with building a dome is that as it arches inwards
18:50the roof can become unstable
18:55worried about a collapse
18:57legend has it the Shah's engineers built a huge tower of bricks for his unfinished dome to rest on
19:04and once the dome was finished and stable
19:07the Shah simply opened the gates to the Taj
19:11and locals desperate for bricks stripped the tower overnight
19:18it's a great story
19:19but Steve's not sure the colourful legend of the Shah's brick tower stands up
19:25building a solid support and then taking it away
19:27it would be a huge number of bricks that you'd need to fill that space
19:31and it would be
19:33it would be just a little bit daft I think
19:36we've had a bit of a discussion here in the office about how the builders would have made this dome
19:42so we're going to have a go at building our mini Taj at 1 to 160 scale
19:49the dome is built by stacking bricks one on top of the other
19:54dome purists would tell you that a dome needs to have its bricks arranged with their bed joints
20:03perpendicular to the thrust in the arch
20:07so the bricks go like this and like this
20:09and the next one goes like that
20:13tilting the stone to form a curve is the conventional way to build a brick dome
20:19when complete it creates an incredibly strong inner shell
20:24but building a dome this way
20:26the bricks would probably need substantial support during construction
20:30making the solid brick tower a more likely possibility
20:35Steve has a different theory
20:38my theory is very cool
20:40that means that you lay one brick
20:44sticking out a little bit beyond the brick below
20:46and you make a space underneath by doing that
20:49so I can build it up to here
20:52so long as I'm careful and I'm leaving a space underneath
20:56and then build that brick behind to keep it stable
21:00this stepped curve needs thick walls to stop the overhanging bricks from falling in
21:06but the advantage is this dome could potentially be built up with no solid support underneath
21:13and once the team adds mortar to lock the bricks firmly in place
21:17the structure holds firm
21:19all the way to the top
21:22so we've built this model here and I think that my theory has been proven
21:26my feeling is that that's a more practical and buildable way of having built this dome
21:33so I think that's the most probable method that was used
21:37perhaps using this clever technique
21:39the Shah's engineers could have raised the Taj's massive dome without a solid brick support
21:49and the dome's gravity defying shape was a key part of the Shah's symbolic code
21:57the Taj's base is a square representing Earth
22:02the dome has an almost circular outline
22:05the perfect shape to remind the viewer of the perfection and eternity of heaven
22:12so the building is a model of the entire universe
22:15with the tomb in between a portal to paradise
22:21and as with everything else with the Taj
22:23the Shah pushed this symbolism to the limit
22:30the Taj's massive almost circular dome sent out a strong symbolic message
22:38reminding onlookers of the perfection of heaven
22:43but from the inside because it's so tall
22:46it could have looked like a cavernous black hole
22:49making observers feel uncomfortable
22:53so the Shah's engineers cheated
22:56they built a false marble ceiling nearly a hundred feet below the apex
23:01this dome within a dome brings heaven closer to Earth
23:06allowing the Shah to make a symbolic statement
23:08both outside and in
23:15and right at the heart of the building lies one of its greatest mysteries
23:22in this tomb built for an Empress
23:24lie two bodies, not one
23:27the second is the Emperor himself
23:30was this part of his grand plan
23:34or something darker
23:43there's more to India's Taj Mahal than its famous legend of lost love
23:49at its very heart lurks a massive mystery
23:54whereas every previous Mughal ruler has an entire mausoleum built for themselves
23:59there's something very different about the Shah
24:02all Mughal emperors
24:04they were having their tombs separate from their queens
24:10so Saddam must have been intending to have his own tomb as well
24:15but looking inside the Taj Mahal reveals things didn't work out that way
24:24right at the heart of the Taj
24:27dead center below the apex of the dome
24:30is the sarcophagus of Empress Mumtaz Mahal
24:35what squashed in awkwardly beside her
24:38is that of her husband Shah Jahan
24:41both caskets are empty
24:43they're only decoys
24:46the real bodies are hidden in a crypt just below
24:49in identical positions to the ones above
24:53and they raise a question
24:56if the Taj Mahal is meant to be a tomb for an Empress
24:59what is the all-powerful Shah doing squeezed right beside her?
25:11archaeologist Pratap Senghar has spent decades unearthing Mughal ruins along the same riverbanks as the Taj
25:19like many, he's eager to understand why the Shah's sarcophagus ended up in its awkward spot
25:27one popular theory is the emperor's body was forced into the Taj against his wishes
25:33the proportions and symmetry of Taj Mahal is perfect except the grave of Emperor Shah Jahan
25:40it is believed that Shah Jahan may not have intended to put himself there
25:49the Shah spent the last eight years of his life in nearby Agra fort
25:54imprisoned by his power hungry son Orinzeb
25:59although he was not handcuffed he was under house arrest
26:05he died in 1666 AD
26:08his body was brought from Agra fort to Taj Mahal by boat and entered into the tomb
26:16Orinzeb according to the popular theory placed his father in the Taj out of spite
26:24deliberately destroying the symmetrical layout of the mausoleum as a snub to the Shah
26:32but two miles up river a building provides clues to a very different explanation
26:39this is the baby Taj
26:42completed just three years before the Taj began
26:45it's a tomb for a distant relative of the Shah
26:48after years of neglect
26:51Pratap's team is returning this once magnificent tomb to its original splendor
26:57we intend to revive the garden
27:00as per original Mughal garden layout
27:03the revival of barter system
27:05architectural restoration and restoration of pathway
27:10this rebuilding work reveals that the mausoleum was a key influence on the Shah's plans for the Taj
27:18the Taj Mahal
27:19this is the first Mughal building which is built up entirely of white marble
27:24this was the inspiration for Emperor Sai Dhan
27:28to plant something much more grand and much more beautiful
27:37the similarities to the Taj Mahal are striking
27:40like the Taj the building's four sides are identical
27:46four waterways once flowed through a garden divided into four squares
27:53and there's one final similarity at the heart of the building
27:58the baby Taj has an unusual arrangement of coffins
28:03the tomb's main sarcophagus sits dead center in the building
28:07right at the heart of the site
28:11but sitting beside it lies another coffin
28:15the grave is in the center as per tradition and the grave of his wife is on the side
28:22like the Taj this second coffin is the only asymmetrical aspect of the mausoleum's entire floor plan
28:31and it suggests that this is perhaps where Shah Jahan found inspiration for his own unconventional resting place inside the
28:39Taj
28:40nobody knows for sure
28:43but perhaps after the effort of creating the magnificent Taj Mahal
28:47and cramming it with symbols of his own power and status
28:51the Shah couldn't resist lying for eternity beside his beloved wife
29:00the influence of the Shah's symbolic master plan stretches even further
29:06it dictated the location of the entire Taj complex
29:12putting this massive building right next to a raging river was a very risky decision
29:17but could this precarious position pay off
29:22as another part of the Shah's symbolic code
29:36the Taj Mahal is more than just a symbol of lost love
29:40its founder Emperor Shah Jahan wanted the building to state his own religious and political beliefs
29:49the Taj's waterways had to spell out a very specific religious message
29:55to Islamic eyes they needed to look like rivers of paradise that flow through the Garden of Eden
30:04water is very very important for life
30:07and accordingly in many religions the water and rivers have been respected
30:13but to realize this vision of Eden the Taj's builders had to site the mausoleum perilously close to the city's
30:20main water source
30:22the mighty river Yamuna
30:25how did they stop the Taj from washing away?
30:31the Taj might look ornate and delicate
30:34but all the stone adds up to nearly 40,000 tons
30:39to bear this colossal weight
30:41the builders needed stable support
30:44they built huge foundation pillars
30:47that extend 40 feet beneath the floor
30:51reaching through soft sand to solid ground below
30:56there are over two dozen of these giants
30:59sitting right under the Taj Mahal
31:02they anchor the marble monument to the ground
31:05and stop the Taj sinking into the muddy riverbank
31:14so what part of the Shah's secret code made this extreme effort worthwhile?
31:21lining the Taj's canals are nearly 100 fountains
31:26they create an impression of sacred springs erupting with the waters of life
31:33today electric pumps power these elegant waterworks
31:37but in the 17th century visitors to the Taj would have been astonished at the spectacle of so many jets
31:44spurting into the air
31:46so how did the Shah's engineers do it?
31:51Rajendra Pandey studies ancient water systems
31:54he's determined to find out what could have driven the Taj's 96 fountains
32:00I am here behind the Taj Mahal on river Yamuna
32:05the ancient water supply to the fountain of Taj Mahal
32:16Rajendra searches for signs of 17th century plumbing
32:20any clues to how engineers could generate the massive water pressure needed to create the Shah's symbolic garden of Eden
32:29high on the bank he spots the remains of the original waterworks
32:33from here we can see here between the trees this ancient structure which have small projections towards the river
32:44Rajendra believes this 17th century wall could be the remains of an ancient system of raising water known as PERS
32:56designed to create water pressure a PERS starts with a line of pulleys along a wall
33:03workers rig up a line of animal hide buckets which they lower into the river below
33:11once the water reaches the top of the wall it pours into a stone channel
33:17then further sets of PERS lift the water high above the Taj's garden
33:23but is this gravity fed system alone enough to transform the garden into the Shah's vision of paradise?
33:35Rajendra and his assistant are going to test the theory
33:39we are preparing a model similar to the fountain that is installed in front of Taj Mahal
33:45just like at the Taj this rooftop water tank generates pressure through gravity
33:51powering taps and showers in rooms below
33:54first the team attach a rubber hose to the tank
33:58then they carefully join three identical nozzles to act as the fountains
34:03but when the water starts to flow
34:06there's a problem
34:08there is a difference in pressure and this ejection of water is lower than these two
34:14the jets from the three nozzles don't match
34:18so how did the Shah's engineers make nearly a hundred fountains erupt to an equal height?
34:26underground investigations may give the answer
34:30beneath each fountain the water flows into mysterious metal spheres
34:35could these be a clue to creating equal pressure?
34:42Rajendra tries a new tactic
34:45he adds a matching set of metal chambers
34:48we are trying to neutralize the pressure difference with a reservoir just below the fountain
34:56in theory all the reservoirs should fill first
35:00and only then will water flow to the nozzles
35:02this way each jet should erupt with equal pressure
35:11now you see the ejection of water is equal and model is perfectly working
35:19thanks to this ingenious engineering the three jets rise to the same height
35:25forming ever erupting springs of life
35:28perfect for the Shah's symbolic Garden of Eden
35:36and beyond this ingenious engineering there's more to the Shah's symbolic puzzle
35:43the layout of the entire Taj complex has a hidden meaning all of its own
35:58the Taj Mahal is richly infused with hidden symbolic messages
36:03they suggest more than a simple story of lost love lies behind the construction of this majestic monument
36:12one aspect that strikes many of the millions of visitors each year
36:16is the almost excessive amount of symmetry built into the Taj
36:21could this symmetry itself be a part of the Shah's symbolic code
36:29landscape archaeologist MB Rajani has found a position directly opposite the monument to measure the Taj's symmetry
36:37look at the monument you will see the left side is almost same as the right side the decorations the
36:44structure the size the number of domes all are absolutely same
36:48it's very difficult to really make out any difference from one side to the other
36:54symmetry begins at the heart of the Taj
37:00the Shah's central mausoleum is an octagon
37:04surrounded by four square and four octagonal chambers
37:08creating four planes of symmetry
37:12on each of the four corners an identical minaret
37:15to match a mosque to the west
37:19the Shah built an identical guest house
37:22the garden consists of sixteen squares
37:26four small squares inside four larger squares
37:31and across the river
37:33a mirror image of the Shah's entire garden
37:37so the building sits at the center of a symmetrical floor plan
37:44and all this symmetry forms a key part of the Shah's symbolic master plan
37:51we do see a lot of symmetry and an attempt to achieve perfection in Islamic art and architecture
37:59trying to get close to the Almighty
38:04this is the reason the Shah used symmetry on such a vast scale
38:10symmetry was a way to show the perfection and infinite nature of his Islamic God
38:15without directly representing Allah's image
38:20and like elsewhere in the Taj
38:22the Shah took this symbolic idea to its extreme
38:28but Rajani's latest research is finding something very unexpected
38:34so here is a photograph which serves my purpose
38:37and I draw a line marking the left curve
38:41and then I draw a line marking the right curve
38:45after I have identified the center of the drum
38:48and use this software to measure pixels from the central line to the right edge and to the left edge
38:58the computer counts pixels on either side of the dome
39:02revealing an asymmetry the naked eye struggles to spot
39:07it is amazing that there are angles in which one side is larger than the other by almost a meter
39:15the three foot bulge in the dome may not be visible at first glance
39:21but it represents a more than 5% difference between the sides
39:26how did this happen?
39:29Rajani believes that despite the Shah's obsession with symmetry
39:33there was a limit to how closely his builders could match the need for perfection
39:40it's easier to get symmetry in 2D layouts like in the gardens of Taj Mahal
39:47whereas it would be very difficult to get that symmetry in a 3D complex shape like the dome
39:55any small discrepancy in their measurements would be amplified when building something as complex as the massive dome
40:04but even though the millions of visitors to the Taj may never notice
40:09this man-made flaw may be an unconscious source of the Taj's timeless beauty
40:15the general perception is beauty is in symmetry
40:18that beautiful people have symmetry in their faces and that's why they are beautiful
40:23but actually if you have a closer look at any face it's not symmetrical at all
40:31true symmetry is rare in the real world
40:34a little asymmetry may be more familiar to most people's everyday experience
40:40like the most beautiful faces the dome's tiny asymmetry could be a significant part of the Taj's almost universal appeal
40:50Taj is not symmetric but it is still very very beautiful
41:00the Taj Mahal is a true wonder of the world
41:05perhaps the most beautiful building ever created
41:08but its legend of lost love is far from the only tale told by these majestic walls
41:15the building's hidden political and religious messages are perhaps just as powerful and as potent as its famous love story
41:23but in the end the story of love shines through in a couple destined to spend eternity together
41:30the other
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