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Andrew Feinberg
White Home Correspondent
Water is leaking into the central tomb of the Taj Mahal after three days of sustained heavy rainfall led to a crack showing within the roof of India’s most well-known landmark.
The federal government company chargeable for sustaining India’s monuments stated it was urgently investigating the extent of the harm to the Seventeenth-century mausoleum.
Movies circulating on-line confirmed one of many Taj Mahal’s 4 gardens utterly inundated with water. Images is strictly prohibited contained in the construction itself, the place officers stated water had been noticed.
“Moisture was noticed inside the primary mausoleum,” stated Rajkumar Patel, a senior official with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). “There could also be a hairline crack within the dome’s stones, inflicting the leakage.”
“The place the place water drops are falling is being checked, to search out out whether or not it’s constantly in the identical place or is falling intermittently. In any case, needed repairs might be carried out. The backyard might be rejuvenated as soon as the rain stops,” Mr Patel advised the Occasions of India.
The Taj Mahal, positioned in Agra in Uttar Pradesh state, is a Unesco World Heritage Website constructed by the emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favorite spouse, Mumtaz Mahal.
A government-approved vacationer information reported stated the water leaking from the dome had reached the chamber which homes the tombs of Shah Jahan and his spouse.
The Taj Mahal stays one of the crucial iconic locations in India, having been visited by many world leaders and distinguished personalities, together with maybe most famously Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales. Extra not too long ago, the likes of former prime minister Boris Johnson and former US president Donald Trump have additionally included the monument on the itinerary for official visits.
This isn’t the primary time issues have been raised concerning the repairs and upkeep of probably the most well-known vacationer web site in India. Historians have blamed poor administration of air and water air pollution across the architectural marvel for inflicting the gradual yellowing of the monument, dulling its good white marble.
It comes as a lot of northern India, together with Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the nationwide capital Delhi, skilled heavy rainfall, inundating metropolis streets on account of a mix of poor drainage programs and insufficient city planning.
This week Agra acquired 151mm of rain in a single day – the best recorded in 80 years – inflicting harm and flooding at different historic websites equivalent to Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri Fort.
