One Earth, One World: 2010

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal (Devanagari: ताज महल, Nastaliq: تاج محل) is a mausoleum located in Agra, India. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned it as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Construction began in 1632 and was completed in approximately 1648. Some dispute surrounds the question of who designed the Taj Mahal; it is clear a team of designers and craftsmen were responsible for the design, with Ustad Ahmad Lahauri considered the most likely candidate as the principal designer.

The Taj Mahal (sometimes referred to as the "Taj") is generally considered to be the best example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements of Persian, Turkish, Indian and Islamic architectural styles. While the arched white marble mausoleum is the most famous part of the monument, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. In 1983 the Taj World Heritage list of UNESCO and was called a "jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the world admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."

Origin and inspiration

In 1631 Shah Jahan, emperor during the Mughal's period of greatest prosperity, was griefstricken when his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died during the birth of their daughter Gauhara Begum, their fourteenth child. Contemporary court chronicles concerning Shah Jahan's grief form the basis of the love story traditionally held as the inspiration for the Taj Mahal.

Construction of the Taj Mahal was begun soon after Mumtaz's death. The principal mausoleum was completed in 1648, and the surrounding buildings and garden were finished five years later. Visiting Agra in 1663, the French traveller François Bernier wrote the following:

I shall finish this letter with a description of the two wonderful mausoleums which constitute the chief superiority of Agra over Delhi. One was erected by Jehan-guyre [sic] in honor of his father Ekbar; and Chah-Jehan raised the other to the memory of his wife Tage Mehale, that extraordinary and celebrated beauty, of whom her husband was so enamoured it is said that he was constant to her during life, and at her death was so affected as nearly to follow her to the grave.

Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza (IPA pronunciation: [ˈtʃi.tʃɛn.ˈit.sɑ]) (from Yucatec Maya chich'en itza', "At the mouth of the well of the Itza") is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilizationlocated in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, present-day Mexico.

Chichen Itza was one of the main regional center in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classic through the terminal and into the early part of the Early Post Classic. The website provides a variety of architectural styles, from what is called "Mexicanized" and reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico in the Puuc style found among the Puuc Maya of the northern lowlands. The presence of the central Mexican styles was once thought to have representatives of the direct migration, or even conquest of central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations of the presence of these non-Maya styles more than the result of cultural diffusion.

Archaeological data such as evidence of at Burning number of important, complex structures and architectural book, that's collapse Chichen Itza was strict. Following the decline of Chichen Itza's hegemony, regional power, in Yucatán shifted to a center at Mayapan.

According to the American Anthropological Association, the actual ruins of Chich'en Itza are federal property, and the site’s stewardship is maintained by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, INAH). The land under the monuments, however, is privately-owned by the Barbachano family.

Christ the Redeemer

Christ the Redeemer (in Portuguese: Cristo Redentor "), is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The statue is 39.6 metres (130 feet) high, weighs 700 tons and is located at the height of the 700 - m (2296 feet) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park with a view of the city.
A symbol of Christianity, the statue has become an icon of Rio and Brazil.

Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids of Giza in the necropolis at the border, was today in Cairo, Egypt and Africa, and is the only remaining member of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is believed to have been built as a tomb for the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (hellenized as Χεωψ, Cheops), and constructed over a 20 year period to 2560 BC closure. It is sometimes called Khufu's Pyramid or the Pyramid of Khufu.