Taj Mahal left Pervez Musharraf overwhelmed, he had many questions about the ‘monument of love’
2 min read . Updated: 06 Feb 2023, 05:27 PM IST
PremiumLater in his book 'In the Line of Fire: A Memoir', Musharraf had mentioned Taj Mahal
No matter what your political stand is, the beauty of the ‘Taj Mahal’ goes beyond that. The same happened with former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf who fell in love with the ‘world's seventh wonder’ at first sight.
Archaeologist KK Muhammed expressed that the former Pakistan President was so overwhelmed with the sight that the first question he asked was "who designed it". Muhammed was the superintending archaeologist of the Agra circle in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 2001 when Musharraf visited India for the Agra Summit with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and he attended then Pakistan president as the tour guide.
"He fell in love with the Taj Mahal the moment he looked at it and the first question he asked me was 'who designed it'," Muhammed told PTI on Sunday.
"He might have expected me to say Shah Jahan, but I told him that the designer (of Taj Mahal) was Ustad Ahmed Lahori, who belonged to Lahore in Pakistan," he said.
"It was around 3 in the afternoon when he arrived at the eastern gate of the Taj Mahal. After exchanging greetings, the first thing I told him was about the optical illusion of the monument," Mr Muhammed recollected. "He was quite impressed. His next question was 'what is the best time to visit the Taj Mahal?'" Mr Muhammed said it was then that he went on to tell Mr Musharraf another aspect of the optical illusion that very few people are aware of.
"I told him that it has varying moods. However, the setting sun creates a wonderful effect on the white marbles and it looks amazing at that time. Also, when it is about to rain, it seems that the monument is about it weep," the former ASI official said.
The archaeologist also mentioned that the politician and his wife spent about 5 minutes of personal moment at the 'monument of love' during the visit
Later in his book 'In the Line of Fire: A Memoir', Musharraf had mentioned Taj Mahal and commented, "Agra is the site of the Taj Mahal, the famous Mughal monument to love, one of the wonders of the world because of its perfect symmetry and ethereal beauty."
Musharraf, the architect of the Kargil War in 1999, died on Sunday in Dubai after a prolonged illness. The 79-year-old former military ruler, who had been in the UAE since 2016, was undergoing treatment for amyloidosis at American Hospital Dubai.
The mortal remains of Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf will be brought back to the country in a special flight from Dubai on Monday and will be laid to rest in Karachi, media reports said.
