Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-20
AGRA MONUMENT
TO MOGUL EMPIRE
Central Indian City Included
in List of Worlds Twenty
Most Beautiful.

agra, central Indian city, included
In q recent list of the worlds 20 most
beautiful communities and famous rs
site of the Tai Mahal, is mo- ument
i'm stone to the Mogul Empire o. the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
says bulletin from the headquarters
of the National &c, graphic Society.
while Tudors 9nd Stuarts were
governing England ard adventures
of many nations were seeking wealth
or freedom i'm America. descendants
of Tamerlane were building an empire
in India which for display and nag
niicence has never been equaied
Agra, capital Of the Great Mogul, was
adorned with palaces and MOSQUES
which rank today among the wonders
of the earth.
Where Chessmen Were Women.
1.-THE Oriental world then bowed be
fore an emperor VIII Sc throne, SUP
ported by peacocks studded with
Jewels, cost $4,000, 900. His chess
board was a courtyard paved III black
and white marble squares, ana for
chessmen he had slave girls in colored
costumes, their movements directed by
his voice. Ninety-nine wives were in
his harem, a hundred being considered
unlucky, and princes from beyond the
seas crowded his audience chamber
under a ceiling of solid gold. Such
was Shah Jehan. during whose rel n
the Mogul Empire reached its golden
age. and who built the Tai Mahll as
tomb for his favorite wife, Arjma--d
Banu, the exalted of the palace.
"Shah Jehan mounted the throne Of
India by wadins through the blood of
his male relatives, having killed them
aI1 ~ MIN ,-aNOIpfinD in the b1l He
ruled with incredible cruelty and splen-
dor and died at "A, the prisoner OF his
usurpinG son, whose mother was the
same Armand Banu in whose honor
ne had built the Tai Mahal. At her
death Shah Jehan's hair had turned
white, and it was her son who I'M
prisoned his aging father in the fort
at Agra and ruled instead.
THE interior of this OLD red sand
stone fort. which is still standing, is
filed with the palaces of Mogul en-
peIors, buildings of supreme beauty.
In one of them is shown the Jasmine
Tower which sheltered Shah Jehans
exalted of the palace during her life
time. Here the Emperor had spent
many hours with his favorite wife, and
its platform commands a superb view
of her tomb, Tai Mahal.
"At his own request the aged En-
peror was brought to die in this favor
tie haunt of his youth. in sight of the
building which Ia since become his
own resting place as well as that of
his wife.
World Masterpiece OF Beauty.
'This world-renowned white marble
building is set in a beautifully kept
garden between two symmetrically
placed red sandstone mosques, the
whole being kept in perfect repair by
the government. Hither during In
dia's more pleasant FAN and Winter
months flock thousands of tourists
from Europe and America, as well as
from neighboring Oriental countries.
palaces of the Mogul emperors,
the white marble Pearl Mosque and
the nearby tomb of Akbar share with
the Tai Mahal the glories of NOLAN
medan architecture of the past. In
sense Delhi ii Agra are to Moham
medan India what Benares is TO the
Hindu, sacred cities of ancient times.
Certainly Agra embodies what is most
beautiful in Moslem taste, though sew
eral Italian craftsmen are said to have
been employed in its plans.
THE modern city of Agra is a. rail