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Rang

City of the Taj Mahal

Agra

The white marble of the Taj Mahal shifts from pink at dawn to gold at dusk, beside forts of red sandstone.

This is a photo of ASI monument number
Photo: Antrix3, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Agra is makrana marble white

Agra was a capital of the Mughal empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. The emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal here as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal; the complex was finished around 1653. The tomb is faced with white marble from Makrana in Rajasthan and inlaid with flowers cut from coloured stones. Its surface takes on the light: pinkish at sunrise, bright white at noon, golden at sunset and pale blue under a full moon. Air pollution has at times yellowed the marble, which is cleaned with clay packs. The buildings beside the tomb, and the great Agra Fort upriver, are in red sandstone, so the city reads as red and white.

Makrana marble white#F4F1EARed sandstone#A5452FDawn pink#F1CFC4Inlay green#3F7A5A

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Agra

WhiteThe lightest colour, seen in snow, milk and chalk, and opposite to black
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Agra" on Wikipedia. If you know Agra and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

All colour cities
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The Blue CityJodhpurOld-city houses washed in blue crowd the foot of Mehrangarh Fort, on the edge of the Thar Desert.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The Pink CityJaipurThe walled city wears a dusty terracotta pink, first painted on for a royal visit in 1876 and kept ever since.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The White CityUdaipurWhite palaces and whitewashed houses stand around lakes in the Aravalli hills of southern Rajasthan.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The Golden CityJaisalmerA fort and town built of yellow sandstone that glows like honey at sunset, deep in the Thar Desert.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ City of saffron and lightVaranasiSaffron robes, marigold garlands and oil lamps colour the river steps of one of the oldest living cities.๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Town of Holi coloursVrindavanFor Holi the temple town of Krishna's childhood fills with clouds of pink, yellow and green powder.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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