Important People and the Taj Mahal

This is a painting of Mumtaz Mahal.  

The Taj Mahal was built to honor her.

Mumtaz Mahal

Mumtaz Mahal was married to Shah Jahan, a Moghul emperor whose lands covered most of India and several other countries as well. She accompanied him all over his empire while he was out campaigning and inspecting his lands.  An Moghul Emperor could spend about a third of his reign away from his palace.  It could take a year to travel from one side of the empire to the other.  Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan traveled by horse, horse cart, elephant and carried in chairs by four to eight adults. All of their supplies had to be carried with them. They used lots of elephants as "pack animals".  Travel with a huge group (ten thousand people and lots of animals) was not fast!

Shah Jahan

Mumtaz Mahal had fourteen children.  Most of them were born away from their main palace, the Red Fort where they lived in Agra.  Shah Jahan was devastated when Mumtaz Mahal died in June of 1631.  The Taj Mahal was built to honor her.

The Taj Mahal -- Close Up

What do you notice about this marble detail?

What lines of symmetry do you see in this section?

Can you design a mosaic pattern to share?

Does the carved marble at the bottom have the same kinds of symmetry?

The Taj Mahal!

The Taj Mahal is spectacular in MANY WAYS!

One of the ways that it is especially unique is its symmetry.  Each element of the Taj Mahal has a mirror part to it.
  

You can see this most easily when you look at the map.  Parts of the Taj Mahal have one line of symmetry and parts have two lines of symmetry.  Do any parts have more than two lines of symmetry?  Can you find the lines of symmetry?  The map was provided in two of India's official main languages, Hindi and English.  Below you can see it in Hindi.

What have you learned about the Taj Mahal?  Why do you think that it is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World?

Traveling to Agra

We spent our first night in Delhi arriving at 3AM, and after a quick breakfast in the morning were off to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal!

The drive to Agra was interesting.  Some of it was a super highway, just like the Mass Pike, including toll plazas.  Other parts were through city streets.  In Delhi, the streets were really crowded. there were lots of motorized rickshaws (called  tuktuks in Kenya) - which are three wheeled cabs with open doors.  

There are lots of people on motorcycles driving in and around everyone else.  

Signs on the highways were in English and Hindi.  It was a good thing for me that some were in English too, because I really don't know how to read the Hindi alphabet - yet. 

When we got out of the city, there were lots of green fields and people gathering grasses.  

We saw lots of different ways of getting around.  Many people were riding bicycles, carrying big loads of lumber and other building materials, cloth that looked like it was going to market, and even friends.  There were many carts pulled by oxen, horses or donkeys.  Cars and trucks were everywhere.

In Agra these ways of getting around make for beautiful pictures.

The stores in towns often have part of their shops set up outside as well as inside.  No snow storms here to interrupt the beautiful weather.  How do you think the climate of a place changes the ways that buildings are designed and used?  If Lexington did not have a cold winter, do you think we might have more open-air shops?  Can you think of what we do have that is like an open-air shop?  (Hint: It takes place on Tuesdays in the summer and fall in the center of town.)

New Delhi Traffic

Our 2nd grade students have been studying the geography of India and were amazed at the amount of traffic they saw in the photo above.  They asked me to take a picture of traffic I saw today in New Delhi.

Students:  Is the traffic the same or is it different?  Do you recognize any vehicles?  

Who Had The Longer Journey?!

Hi everyone!

I am now in New Delhi, India. Our family flew from three different places to get to New Delhi - with one or two stops in between. Here are the three different routes that we took:

1. San Fransciso, CA to Frankfurt, Germany to New Delhi, India. 
2. San Antonio, TX to Chicago, IL to New York, NY to New Delhi, India
3. Boston, MA to Frankfurt, Germany to New Delhi, India

Here are two questions I'd like you to answer:

1. Which group traveled the greatest distance (Group 1, 2, or 3)?
2. Which route do you think took the most time (Group 1, 2, or 3)? 

 EXTRA CREDIT: Would it have been shorter for Group 3 to fly through Dubai, UAE instead of Frankfurt, Germany?

And we are off!

Passports are needed to travel to a different country.  Students:  Have you, or someone you know, traveled to a different country?  Where?