The
Qutab Minar and the
Taj Mahal are the two most famous monuments of India. They are the marvels
of
Islamic architecture, which
every visitor to India simply must see. India's monuments have a very wide range. In
Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh, there is the
Buddhist stupa - a structure like a huge
upturned bowl - built in 3 BC by Emperor Ashoka. There are the Ajanta and Ellora caves
in Maharashtra, with their murals and frescoes. As for
Hindu architecture,
Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, contains the Shore Temples
built between 600 and 750 AD, the Rock Fort Temple atop a rock in Tiruchirapalli, and the
Meenakshi Temple in Madurai. In
Konark
in Orissa, there is the Sun Temple — in the shape of a huge chariot for the Sun God
built in 1300 AD. The temples at Varanasi in North India, and the
ghaats - wide
steps going down into the holy river Ganga - are monuments to the enduring faith of the
Hindu people. Forts of Rajasthan like
Amer,
Chittorgarh,
Nahargarh,
Jaigarh & Jaisalmer, and the Lake Palace at Udaipur, with their curves and
circles, marbles and sandstone, fill us with a sense of awe and respect for the
architects and builders who built them and the kings who envisaged them. Among Muslim
monuments are the Char Minar at Hyderabad, Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, Fatehpur Sikri and the
Fort at Agra. The
Golden Temple
at Amritsar is a wonderful piece of
Sikh architecture. The
Gateway of India at Bombay, the
India Gate
and the
Rashtrapati Bhavan
in Delhi, the Vivekananda Temple at Kanyakumari, the Birla mandirs at Jaipur, Delhi, and
Calcutta, and the lotus-shaped
Baha'i Temple
at Delhi are among the more recent monuments in India.