The Taj Mahal, the Twelve Year Build and Castors

The Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Its structure is visually gorgeous and attracts tourists from all over the world every single year. Located in Agra, India, it is undoubtedly one of the most instantly recognizable structures and captures the imagination of the people that know it was a tribute built with love to the third wife of Shah Jahan, the Mughal Emperor, following her death. Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631 but her memory lives on in the UNESCO heritage site. That is not to say, though, that there were no major problems with its build. It took twelve years to complete the Taj Mahal itself but it took far longer to complete the entire site. It was built between 1632 and 1653 but had they had castors at their disposal, some of the problems that caused the build to drag on for so long may not have occurred at all.

Did you know that the Taj Mahal merges Persian, Indian and Turkish architecture? This is just one of the many reasons why it was so complex to build. Another is the fact that it incorporated a mausoleum, plinth, gateway, jaweb and minarets, amongst other elements. The mausoleum itself was the first to be finished and was ready to use by 1643 but construction of other elements took quite some time because of the logistics of the project. And this is where castors come in, or would have come in, handy.

As you can imagine, there were thousands of people employed to work on the Taj Mahal but they had to struggle against inept transportation methods as far as building materials were conce
ed. For example, ramps were built so that a pulley system could be used to bring marble and other materials to the site. Oxen were used in teams to pull construction wagons and rope and bucket systems were used to get water to where it needed to be. Bearing in mind this was pretty sophisticated in the 17th Century, it still took hours to get everything to where it needed to be. This would not have been a problem with castors.

Some of the heavy duty castors, like the 2BZQX/XXH/SZ series, can hold between 2800kg and 11500kg and so would have been ideal for wheeling panels of marble and other heavy building materials to the site. They would definitely have been more efficient than oxen and pulley systems, and there would have been no need for ramps. The Indians could have also used industrial trolleys on them for wheeling materials that were not needed away. The castor certainly makes life easier in industry today and can withstand incredible force so imagine what they would have done for those building the Taj Mahal. There is no doubt that they would have cut down the overall building time and give
Shah Jahan more time to enjoy the mausoleum and the memory of his beloved.