Original photo by Unsplash+ via Getty Images
The Taj Mahal, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, appears to undergo a chromatic evolution as the day goes on. Depending on light and weather conditions, the mausoleum can appear pinkish at sunrise, then a stunning bright white at noon, before settling into a series of golden or orange hues as the sun begins to set.
The architecture of the Taj Mahal is known to contain a number of deliberate optical illusions. When it was commissioned in 1631 by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as the tomb for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, its clever architects began playing with perspective. For example, as you walk toward the Taj Mahal from the entry gate, it appears to grow smaller and smaller, and the reverse seems to happen as you walk away. And while the four minarets surrounding the tomb look perfectly upright, they in fact lean outward, providing aesthetic balance to the building’s design as well as protection in the event of an earthquake.
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It's a factStretching for 1,560 miles, the Ganges River is relatively short compared to the other great rivers of the world. The Ganges basin, however, encompasses some 419,300 square miles and is home to more than 650 million people, making it the world’s most populated river basin.
The reason the Taj Mahal seems to change color, however, is due not to an optical illusion, but rather to the nature of the Makrana marble used in its construction. This high-quality marble from the Indian state of Rajasthan is highly reflective, absorbing and scattering light in different ways depending on the time of day.
Less romantically, pollution has also played its part in the mausoleum’s shifting colors. Particles in the air surrounding the Taj Mahal can alter its color to a certain extent, and nearby factories have been known to cause problems. In 2018, for example, the mausoleum’s white marble turned a shade of yellow due to air pollution, and was threatening to further develop into unappealing shades of brown and green. Cleanup operations have since helped restore the famous building to a more dignified state, ensuring it’s the Makrana marble, rather than grit and grime, that lends the Taj Mahal its soft, shifting, and ethereal hues.
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The earliest known predecessor to the game of ______ is widely regarded to be chaturanga, dating to the 600s.
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The earliest known predecessor to the game of chess is widely regarded to be chaturanga, dating to the 600s.
India produces almost twice as many films as Hollywood each year.
India is officially the world’s most prolific filmmaking nation. Its massive Hindi-language film industry is based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), and is commonly known as Bollywood (a portmanteau combining “Bombay” and “Hollywood”). India typically produces more than 1,000 movies each year, around twice as many as the United States.
The Bollywood scene began in earnest in the 1930s and soon developed into an enormous filmmaking machine. Bollywood films are typically made at a fraction of the cost of their Hollywood counterparts: A big-budget Bollywood film can cost anywhere between $2 million and $20 million, compared with the $100 million to $150 million spent on an average Hollywood movie. Whatever the cost, most Bollywood movies are instantly recognizable thanks to their elaborate song and dance sequences, emotional storytelling, colorful cultural representations, and sweeping, larger-than-life narratives.
Tony is an English writer of nonfiction and fiction living on the edge of the Amazon jungle.
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