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Hoshang Shah’s Tomb

Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh


Reputed to be India’s oldest marble mausoleum, this imposing tomb is crowned with a tiny crescent thought to have been imported from Persia or Mesopotamia. Light filters into the echoing, domed interior through stone jalis (carved lattice screens), intended to cast an appropriately subdued light on the tombs. An inscription records Shah Jahan sending his architects – including Ustad Hamid, who worked on the Taj Mahal – here in 1659 to pay their respects to the tomb’s builders of two centuries before.


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