eye2clicks - By Dinkar Kalotra

The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage." Taj Mahal is the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Turkish and Indian architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While the white domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar component of the Taj Mahal, it is actually an integrated complex of structures. The construction began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, employing thousands of artisans and craftsmen.The construction of the Taj Mahal was entrusted to a board of architects under imperial supervision, including Abd ul-Karim Ma'mur Khan, Makramat Khan, and Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.Lahauri is generally considered to ...

Hauz Khas Complex in South Delhi houses a water tank, an Islamic seminary, a mosque, a tomb and pavilions built around an urbanized village with medieval history traced to the 13th century of Delhi Sultanate reign. It was part of Siri, the second medieval city of India of the Delhi Sultanate of Allauddin Khilji Dynasty (1296–1316).The etymology of the name Hauz Khas in Urdu language is derived from the words ‘Hauz’: “water tank” (or lake) and ‘Khas’:“royal”- the “Royal tank”. The large water tank or reservoir was first built by Khilji {the plaque displayed (pictured in the gallery) at the site records this fact} to supply water to the inhabitants of Siri.The tank was de–silted during the reign of Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1351–88). Several buildings (Mosque and madrasa) and tombs were built overlooking the water tank or lake. Firoz Shah’s tomb pivots the L–shaped building complex which overlooks the tank. In the 1980s, Hauz Khas Village , studded with domed tombs of Muslim royalty from t...

Khajjiar is a hill station in Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh, India, located at an approximate of 24 km from Dalhousie Khajjiar sits on a small plateau with a small stream-fed lake in the middle that has been covered over with weeds. The hill station is surrounded by green meadows and dense forests. It is about 6500 ft. (1981m) above sea level in the foothills of the Dhauladhar ranges of the Western Himalayas and snowy peaks can be seen in the distance. Khajjiar is often called the Mini Switzerland of Himachal Pradesh and was officially baptized thus by the Swiss Ambassador on July 7, 1992. It has a rare combination of three ecosystems: lake, pasture and forest, all in one place. Khajjiar can be reached from Dalhousie, the nearest major town and hill station, by bus in an hour or so. There are two buses in the morning that leave at around 9:30. The last bus that returns from Khajjiar to Dalhousie is at 3:30 PM. Khajjiar Lake is situated in district Cham...

  Helsinki was established as a trading town by King Gustav I of Sweden in 1550 as the town of Helsingfors, which he intended to be a rival to the Hanseatic city of Reval (today: Tallinn ). Little came of the plans as Helsinki remained a tiny town plagued by poverty, wars, and diseases. The plague of 1710 killed the greater part of the inhabitants of Helsinki.The construction of the naval fortress Sveaborg (In Finnish Viapori , today also Suomenlinna ) in the 18th century helped improve Helsinki's status, but it was not until Russia defeated Sweden in the Finnish War and annexed Finland as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 that the town began to develop into a substantial city. Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is 588,941 (31 January 2011), making it by far the ...

  Kashmir (The Paradise on Earth) (Balti, Gojri, Poonchi/Chibhali, Shina: کشمیر; Dogri: कश्मीर; Kashmiri: कॅशीर, کٔشِیر; Ladakhi: ཀཤམིར; Uyghur: كەشمىر ) is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range. Today Kashmir denotes a larger area that includes the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir (the Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh), the Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and the Azad Kashmir provinces, and the Chinese-administered regions of Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract. In the first half of the first millennium, the Kashmir region became an important center of Hinduism and later of Buddhism; later still, in the ninth century, Kashmir Shaivism arose.In 1349, Shah Mir became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir and inaugurated the Salatin-i-Kashmir or Swati dynasty.For the next five centuries, Muslim mona...

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib is the most prominent Sikh gurdwara or Sikh house of worship, in Delhi, known for its association with the eighth Sikh Guru, Guru Har Krishan, and the pond inside its complex, known as the "Sarovar", whose water is considered holy by Sikhs and is known as "Amrit". It was built by Sikh General, Sardar Bhagel Singh in 1783, who supervised the construction of nine Sikh shrines in Delhi in the same year, during the reign of Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam II. It is situated near Connaught Place, New Delhi and is instantly recognisable by its stunning golden dome and tall flagpole, Nishan Sahib . Gurdwara Bangla Sahib was originally a bungalow belonging to Raja Jai Singh, an Indian ruler in the seventeenth century, and was known as Jaisinghpura Palace. The eighth Sikh Guru, Guru Har Krishan resided here during his stay in Delhi in 1664. During that time, there was a smallpox and cholera epidemic, and Guru Har Krishan helped the suffering by giving...

Bhadarwah is located at 32°59′N 75°43′E  /  32.98°N 75.72°E  / 32.98; 75.72 . It has an average elevation of 1,613 metres (5,295 feet) Bhaderwah is a small valley-town in Doda (India /Jammu and Kashmir/ Doda). Bhaderwah valley is predominantly a mountainous torrid town situated 80 km from Batote. The festive mood in the district begins with the melting of snow in April and the sprouting of greenery all round. Kailash Yatra is another famous pilgrimage of the area which is considered an important Hindu pilgrimage. Bhaderwah offers to the tourist a variety of beautiful landscape, colourful local fairs, important festival mood and unique mosaic culture, extremely and pleasant summer temperature ranges from 18 degrees to 32 degrees. Popularly called Chhota-Kashmir, has bewitching natural beauty which enthrills any visitor. The main hub to reach Bhaderwah is Jammu. It is approximately 200 Kms form Jammu to Bhaderwah by road. The road can be divided in four main spots as: ...

named after Sultan Singh was the biggest village (covering 52000 bighas of land) under Farrukhnagar and many of the present day villages around it have originated as 'dhanis' i.e temporary farmer's shelters within the boundary of Sultanpur. (Just one and half hour drive from New Delhi) The region around Sultanpur was called Dhundhoti. Sultanpur was the center of salt production for use in Delhi and the United Provinces till the late 19th century exporting annually 250000 quintals (680000 maunds) over the Rajputana-Malwa Railway. Salt was produced by extracting brine from about 40 wells using bullocks and drying in open plots. As a bird sanctuary it was the find of Peter Jackson, famous ornothologist, and Honorary Secretary of the Delhi Birdwatching Society, who wrote to Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, founder of the Society, in 1970 about the need to declare the Sultanpur jheel near Delhi, a bird sanctuary, and she asked him to take her there. She had to canc...