MOHATTA PALCE

MOHATTA PLACE

Mohatta Palace is located in Karachi, Pakistan. mohatta place  was built by Shivratan Chandraratan Mohatta, He was self-made businessman from Marwar as his summer home in 1927. The name of architect of the palace was Agha Ahmed Hussain. However, Mohatta could enjoy this building for only about two decades before independence of Pakistan and he left Karachi for India. He built the Palace in the tradition of stone palaces in Rajasthan, using pink Jodhpur stone in combination with the local yellow stone from Gizri. The amalgam gave the palace a distinctive presence in an elegant neighbourhood, characterised by Mughal architecture which was located not far from the sea.
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ENTRANCE

Mohatta Palace was a luxurious home built in the late 1920s.the palace has an area of 18,500 sq ft (1,720 m2) and its facade is trimmed with windows, stone brackets, spandrels, domes, balustrades with floral motifs and exquisite railings. There are nine domes, with a centre dome in the middle; while the windows in the front portion opening out into the garden are of blue colour and those in the rear area are arched windows with stained glass. The palace has large stately rooms designed for entertainment on the ground floor and more private facilities on the first floor, where there is a terrace provided with a shade from intense sunlight. The palace is solely made up of teak wood with a polished staircase, long corridors and doors opening within doors. The "barsati” (terrace) of the Mohatta Palace had a beautiful family temple dedicated to Hindu God, lord Shiva.
There is a large square hall with seven openings leading into a corridor. The hall acts as a datum and around it the corridors are connected to the rooms where different activities are held. On the south between the two rooms is a solid teak wood, polished staircase connecting ground floor and first floor.
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When viewed from outside, the ground floor has two very ornate windows on either side of the entrance consisting of three shutters in each. The same windows are on the north and south side as well, on either side of the stairs which lead from the rooms to the grounds. The octagonal towers have five windows each. In the same way there is a protruding ‘chhajja’ which goes all around the ground floor to provide shade.

LAHORE SHAHI QILA

The Lahore Fort, locally known as Shahi Qila..Fort is the same fort, which was damaged by the Mongols in 1241 and again in 1398 by a detachment of Timur’s army, then rebuilt in 1421 by Sayyid, son of Khizr Khan.

The Fort was extensively refurbished, extended and upgraded during the Mughal era. This is why it is rightly attributed as one of the gems of the Mughal civilization. Emperor Jalal ud Did Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb all added to it. During the period of Sikh occupation, Ranjit Singh added several pavilions on the upper ramparts. Some modifications to the Fort were made during the British period beginning in 1846 for housing facilities for colonial functions. Those modifications have been reverted and efforts made to bring the Fort back in its pre 1846 appearance.the Fort contains marble palaces decorated with mosaics and gilt. The elegance of the splendid monument is matchless.

The massive fortification walls, built by Emperor Akbar in the 1560s, tower over the older part of Lahore. The huge rectangle they define, 380 by 330 meters (1,250 by 1,080 feet), is filled with buildings from a variety of periods. The main gates are located alongside the centre of the western and eastern walls. A tour of the Fort in one go is like eating an elephant in one gulp, so it merits to be seen slowly like a child looks at a huge mural.
The inscription outside tells that King Jahangir built Maktab Khana in 1618. Another gateway is the Masti gate – a corruption of Masjid Gate – named after the mosque, which still stands outside the Gate. Built in 1566, the Gate only assumed its present name after the construction of the nearby Mosque in 1641 by Empress Maryam Zamani, mother of King Jahangir.
Inside, the Diwan-e-Am (Hall of Public Audience) is an open pavilion with 40 pillars built in 1631-32 by Emperor Shah Jahan, in order to shelter his subjects when they appeared before him. 

Originally, Akbar had built the marble pavilion and red sandstone balcony that is at the back of the Diwan-e-Am. Here the emperor appeared daily before the public who, in his days, used to gather under a canvas canopy. The serpentine sandstone brackets are typical of Akbar’s commissions, with the depiction of animals showing Hindu influence. His two-stored Diwan-e-Khas (Hall of Private Audience), built in 1566, is behind the balcony and is reached by stairs on the right. The Khwabgah-e-Jahangir (Jahangir’s Room of Dreams) is the main building running the length of the north side of Jahangir’s Quadrangle and is typical of Jahangir’s period in its austerity. 

It is now a museum, containing some excellent illustrated manuscripts (including the Akbar Nama – the daily chronicle of Akbar’s reign), some beautiful calligraphy, good miniature paintings and a collection of Mughal coins.

TAJ MAHAL

WHY TAJMAHAL BUILDTaj Mahal stands in the city of Agra, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Yamuna River. It was built in the memory of the beautiful Arjumand Bano Begum, who won the heart of a Mughal prince. Their love story is the most important factor behind the Taj Mahal history. She was married at 21 to Emperor Jahangir’s third son Prince Khurram and stayed loyally by his side through good times and bad: in the luxurious royal palaces of Agra as well as the transient tents of war camps. In AD 1628, Khurram became king after a bloody battle of succession: he took the name Shahjahan or “King of the World” and showered his beloved begum with the highest titles. She became Mumtaz Mahal, the exalted of the palace and Mumtaz-ul-Zamani, the exalted of the Age. But Mumtaz Mahal was not destined to be queen for long. 

 In 1631, Shahjahan went on an expedition to the south and, as always, Mumtaz Mahal accompanied him. But she died in childbirth at Burhanpur. She had borne Shahjahan fourteen children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived. When Mumtaz Mahal died, she was just 39 years old. Shahjahan was inconsolable and contemporary chronicles tell of the royal court mourning for two years. there was no music, no feasting, and no celebration of any kind. This is the sad chapter behind the Taj Mahal history.

 SYMBOL OF LOVE =TAJ MAHAL 
Shahjahan, who was a passionate builder, now decided to erect a memorial to his queen in pristine marble that the world would never forget. The site selected for the tomb was a garden by the Yamuna river, unshadowed by any other structure. The garden had been laid by Raja Man Singh of Amber and now belonged to his grndson, Raja Jai Singh. By a royal firman, Shahjahan gave Jai Singh four havelis in exchange for the garden. The site was also chosen because it was located on a bend in the river, and so could be seen from Shahjahan’s personal palace in Agra Fort, further upstream. This is why Taj Mahal history is still reminded by the lovers all over.

CONSTRUCTION OF TAJ MAHALThe histroy of Taj Mahal behind its construction is quite amusing. Work on the mausoleum began in 1633 and 20,000 workers laboured for 17 years to build it. The most skilled architects, inlay craftsmen, calligraphers, stone-carvers and masons came from all across Indian and lands as distant as Persia and Turkey. The master mason was from Baghdab, an expert in building the double dome from Persia, and an inlay specialist from Delhi.

Yemen sent agates, the corals came from Arabia, the garnets from Bundelkhand, onyx and amethyst from Persia. Mumtaz Mahal’s final resting-place was ornamented like a queen’s jewel-box.
This is the undying story that has now became an integral part of the Taj Mahal history and its construction.