Epress.am News from Armenia
If you’ve always wanted to visit the Taj Mahal then you better book your flight to India soon — as it may have fallen down by the time you get round to going, reports AOL Travel (UK edition).
According to a group of historians, politicians and environmentalists the foundations for the country’s most famous landmark have dried out and started to rot.
The 358-year-old architectural wonder is built on a foundation of mahogany posts sunk into wells fed by the Yamuna river in Agra.
Unfortunately the river is running dry — partly because of pollution, industry and deforestation — causing the foundations to become brittle and begin disintegrating.
Although activists haven’t been allowed to see the foundations they insist the threat is real.
Ramshankar Katheria, the MP for Agra who is leading a campaign to save the tomb, said: “No one has been allowed to go into the foundations for the last three decades. If everything is fine, what have they got to hide?
“If the crisis is not tackled, the Taj Mahal will cave in between two and five years.”
Historian Prof Ram Nath added: “The river is a constituent of its architectural design and if the river dies, the Taj cannot survive.”
Cracks were noticed in 2010 in parts of the world famous wonder which is visited by around four million people a year.