However, despite a striking resemblance, this is not the Taj Mahal. Rather, it’s Bibi-ka-Maqbara, a tomb built in the late 17th century by Prince Azam Shah (son of the sixth Mughal emperor), as a loving tribute to… his mum.

Literally translated as “Tomb of the Lady”, Bibi-ka-Maqbara was of course based on the iconic design of the original Taj, seen here in our story about it from 2006.

Sadly for Prince Azam Shah’s mum, while The Taj Mahal attracts from 2 to 4 million visitors every year, few outside India have ever heard of Bibi-ka-Maqbara. Which is a shame, as it does a pretty passable impression of the original.

There is another copy of the Taj in India, built by an filmmaker at the end of last year, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. It should be somewhere around here.

Further reading: The full story of Bibi-ka-Maqbara and the Wikipedia entry about Mughal architecture.

Thanks to Rukya R.

Locations: India /

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Although it is barely 40km away from the well populated South Andaman Island, North Sentinel is home to what is probably the last “uncontacted” tribe on Earth. The islanders are fiercely independent and have shunned all attempts to contact them, although in 1991 a few intrepid tribesmen did go as far as accepting gifts of coconuts from Indian government officials who approached the island in a dinghy. They survive as hunter-gatherers, armed with bows and arrows tipped with metal scavenged from whatever flotsam and jetsam washes up on shore.

Nobody knows how many people live on the island – the official 2001 census figure, recorded from aerial surveys, was 39, but some estimates are as high as 400. What we do know is that the tsunami of December 2004 had a devastating impact on much of the Andaman region, and North Sentinel was no exception. For a dramatic illustration of its effects, compare these two images:

The first picture, taken from Google Earth, was captured before the tsunami (the exact date isn’t recorded but it was circa 2000). The second image was taken in April 2005 by the European Space Agency’s Proba satellite, and shows that the island’s fringing reefs have been lifted considerably, exposing large areas of coral and destroying much of the shallow lagoon.

The Indian government, worried that the North Sentinelese¹ had been wiped out by the disaster, dispatched a helicopter to investigate. They found that at least some of the islanders were still alive and kicking – and when the chopper got too close, it came under attack from a hail of rocks and arrows. How the islanders will cope with the damage to their ecosystem remains to be seen, but they will at least be left to do it in peace: India’s official policy is now to make no further attempt to contact or “assimilate” the islanders, so although they remain notionally “Indian”, they are still essentially untouched by the outside world.

Read more about the island and its people at Wikipedia, and at EVS-Islands, which also has an excellent map.

Locations: India / Categories: Islands, Weirdness

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Built around a massive gold-plated meditation dome known as the Matrimandir, Auroville was created in hopes that it would be a model for peace, learning, and environmental stewardship.

The town was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa, a spiritual leader known to her followers as “The Mother”, who created the guiding principles of the town as well as a governing organisation that today is nebulously referred to as “the Foundation”.²

Taking a closer look at the Matrimandir reveals its sheer size and architectural complexity – although it does look a lot like a much shinier version of Walt Disney World’s Epcot Centre.

Getting a peek inside the sacred meditation chamber within the Matrimandir is difficult for outsiders, but it’s reported to contain a polished white marble room with a light-reflecting crystal suspended at its centre. Despite sounding like the inside of a trendy nightclub, it has been described as “a place to find one’s consciousness”.

A bit further to the south, we can make out one of Auroville’s clever alternative energy solutions. Sitting atop the aptly named “Solar Kitchen” is a 15-metre-wide solar bowl that concentrates light from the sun to heat water for the restaurant. The array is so powerful that it can heat enough water to 150°C to cook over 2,000 meals per day!

If you feel like this little slice of utopian heaven might be might be a good change of pace from your hectic lifestyle, Auroville has varying lodging options for tourists, and even a visitor’s centre. Come to think of it, I could go for some solar-boiled tofu curry right about now…

For a complete guide to all of Auroville’s sights, culture, and history visit the official Auroville website, or for just the facts, the Auroville Wikipedia page.

Thanks to Nilauro, Rob Alexandre, and Sudipto Ghosh.

Locations: India / Categories: Monuments, Structures

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One of the most prominent of the coastal forts is Murud-Janjira. Built as early as the 13th century, and taking its current form under Siddi occupation around 1570, the fort is best known for being the only one on this stretch of coast that was never defeated, despite numerous attacks. It is also one of the best preserved of the coastal forts, with palace ruins still standing, and about 100 cannons remaining in place in the 21 bastions.

Just a short distance to the north-west is the smaller Padmadurg Fort, built by Shivaji to keep a close watch on the Siddi fort he repeatedly failed to conquer.

Eventually Shivaji built the fort at Sindhudurg as a larger base, putting great effort into the fortifications with walls 9m high and 4m wide, and a camouflaged entranceway. His hand and foot prints are preserved at the site.

Thirty-five kilometres south of Mumbai, the port of Alibag is defended by Kolaba Fort. While it is possible – at low tide – to wade through shallow water out to the fort, history shows that sharp seashells were laid down on the seabed to prevent people from reaching the 7m high walls.

A pair of forts protect the settlements of Dapoli and Harne: Suvarnadurg, which is just a short distance from its sister fort on the mainland, Kanakdurg.  Some records claim that a tunnel connected the two forts, though it has not been located. Some segments of the island were left unfortifed by walls, but instead were chiselled so smooth that any invaders attempting to climb the steep rocks would simply slide back in to the sea!

Finally, Vijaydurg is a coastal fort famous for an invisible defense which successfully prevented an attack on the fort by Charles Boon around 1720. He was reportedly mystified as to why his ships could not proceed past a certain point despite considerable effort. Naval divers solved the mystery in 1991 when they discovered a man-made wall about 150m to the east of the fort. The wall is 3m high, 7m wide and more than 100m long, invisible from the water even at low-tide.

The TrekFORTS site has good pictures and information about Janjira, Sindhudurg and Vijaydurg forts, as well as many others.

Locations: India / Categories: Buildings, Structures

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Though outdated in terms of its technological prowess, the stationary instruments at Jantar Mantar continually prove their relevancy in astronomical science, as well as currently holding the record for world’s largest sundial, towering as they do at over 27 metres tall.

The Samrat Yantra, meaning “The Supreme Instrument”, is used for calculating the time of day to the exact second using the position of the dial and the shadow it casts from the sun. If an astronomical observer knew the time it took a prominent star to transition the sky, they could even use the Yantra tell the time at night.

Maharaja Jai Singh II built Jantar Mantar early in the 17th century as one of five such astronomical observatories throughout India. This particular observatory is the largest of the them all and is based upon the observatory built in New Delhi (below). The other three can be found in Ujain, Mathura, and Varanasi.

James has previously put together some instructions for reading sundials on Google Earth – who thinks than can work out the exact time these images were captured?

Locations: India / Categories: Buildings, Monuments, Shadows

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While most border posts are mundane places where you fill out forms and get your passport stamped, this one is the scene of possibly the most spectacular – and the most well attended – border ceremony in the world, with crowds from both nations packing their own grandstand for a lively and festive celebration of nationalism.

By day, people and goods flow across the border, often with porters of one nation handing packages across the border to porters from the other. However at sunset, troops from the two countries parade in aggressive fashion, with much stamping, staring, brandishing of weapons, slamming of gates and coordinated flag-lowerings, all timed precisely such that one nation’s flag is not removed earlier than the other.

Check out the pictures at Panoramio and view some of the many YouTube videos to get a true sense of this border ceremony as a spectator sport.

Thanks to Mukesh Kanchan.

Locations: India, Pakistan / Categories: Stadiums and Sport, Weirdness

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In the 1570s the fourth Sikh guru created a pool named Amrit Sarovar – Lake of Immortal Nectar. Over time the city which developed around this area took the shortened name Amritsar. The first temple was completed in 1604 to house the Sikh holy book known as Guru Granth Sahib which in 1708 was named as the perpetual guru of the Sikh faith, ending the human lineage of gurus.

The main temple in the centre of the pool is a blend of Hindu and Islamic architectural styles and is coated with pure gold (estimates vary from 100kg to 750kg!) It has a door on each side to signify that people of all faiths are welcome.

The temple is connected by a causeway to the Akal Takhat, or traditional Sikh Parliament, to which the book is returned every evening and retrieved the following morning, all with great ceremony.

Surrounding the pool are a marble walkway, shrines, museums and offices. There is also accommodation for pilgrims and, to the south-east, a volunteer-run community kitchen and dining hall which provides simple free meals to tens of thousands of visitors every day.

Wikimedia has some excellent pictures.

Thanks to D. Sambhi.

Locations: India / Categories: Buildings

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Boudhanath Stupa near Kathmandu in Nepal is one of the largest in the world, and it is a focal point for Tibetan refugees in Nepal. During religious festivals the stupa is lined with thousands of oil lamps which provide an incredibly atmospheric view for the thousands of people circumambulating the structure.

Dhamek Stupa in Sarnath, India is considered the oldest known stupa, having been built around 500AD to replace an earlier structure. It represents the original, simpler design of stupas – being simply a column of bricks and stone.

In the Rocky Mountains of Colorado is the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya, one of the first and largest stupas in North America, this stupa was built to commemorate Chogyam Trungpa, a respected teacher who helped develop Buddhism in the West.

Previously on Google Sightseeing: The Shwedagon Pagoda, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.

There’s lots more to learn at the Wikipedia entries for Bodhnath, Dhamek and Dharmakaya.

Thanks to Davee, Evelyn Mitchell, Michael and Yuval.

Locations: Colorado, India, Nepal / Categories: Monuments, Structures

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Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard in Bangladesh is mostly in low-res, but we can see a couple of ships here which have been beached on the mud flats for dismantling. All the steel from the ships is recycled and I think these are lifeboats.

The workers here are mostly barefoot, have no safety gear and scrap the ships by hand. Greenpeace estimates that due to the potential for structural collapse on the ships, and the hazardous chemicals abound, one worker a day is likely to die. Edward Burtynsky’s photos show just how perilous it is.

There’s even more to see Alang, India, where workers can expect similarly awful conditions. Of note here’s a huge end piece of ship and an aircraft carrier waiting out at sea.

Further reading on Wikipedia and Shoback

Thanks: Nathan, John Kranick, dr_cy_coe, Glenn, Ken Przywara, russ

Locations: Bangladesh, India / Categories: Watercraft

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I always believed the story that he planned to build a second Taj made of black marble just across the river to the north but those pesky historians say that this is in fact a myth! I’ll have to try and find something that’s true…

Apparently the whole thing was designed to be perfectly symmetrical, with the deceased buried at the centre of the building. The symmetry was later spoiled though, as the emperors son decided to bury the deceased emperor alongside his wife.

There’s a large gallery of ground level pics at this site, a 360 panorama here and loads of info at Wikipedia.

Thanks: Jens Kilian, Fero Gunic, Matthew, Ashutosh Rajekar, gauri, vivek iyer, Tim, Mark Ross & Simone

Locations: India / Categories: Buildings

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