Description of the attraction
The wonderful Indian city of Agra is home to many cultural and architectural monuments. One of such significant historical sites is the Chini-ka-Rauza mausoleum, built by order of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his first minister and poet Allam Afzal Khan Mullah, who died in 1635.
Initially, a whole complex of structures was built, which were surrounded by a high wall with two gates - North and South. But, unfortunately, to this day, only ruins have survived from most of the buildings, while the mausoleum has remained in fairly good condition. It has a square shape with small turrets at the corners, typical of buildings from the times of the Great Mughals, and a large dome crowning the roof. Each of the four sides is decorated with an arch and is about 24 meters high. The central inner hall, where the tomb of Allam Afzal Khan Mullah is located, has an octagonal shape and four entrances lead into it, through which it connects with four smaller halls.
In general, the style in which the tomb is made is rather restrained, its lines and forms are simple and laconic as for Indo-Persian architecture. But at the same time, all the walls and ceilings are covered with patterns and ornaments of amazing beauty and grace, which are lined with bright colored ceramic tiles, which were specially brought from China. For each detail of the building, a specific color was used, so blue tiles were chosen to create the inscriptions on the central arch, and blue, yellow and green for its framing. While the rest of the arches were decorated with blue and orange tiles. On some walls, the pattern is very well preserved and you can clearly imagine how the mausoleum looked originally.
