No to Taj Mahal theme park

Edwin Arnold, editor of The Daily Telegraph, once proclaimed the famous Taj Mahal as “not a piece of architecture…but the proud passions of an emperor’s love wrought in living stones”. The description is spot on, and this building is, for lack of better word, unimprovable.

Although some people in India are disagreeing with that idea.

“The visitor experience”, according to the Agra Development Authority, could be improved with “ropewalks, a suspension bridge, cable cars and a Ferris wheel”. All of these “great” additions would surround the prized mausoleum.

This is extremely painful. I don’t know about you but this thought evokes in me an interesting snapshot. Imagine the venerated and world famous – one of the most recognizable – buildings, filled with thousands of screaming little kids, dragging their bored parent, balloon and candy in hand, that huge Ferris wheel spinning in the back of the grandiose structure and all to the marvelous beat of loud speakers. This is not only painful, it’s down right scary.

Historical monuments and tourist spots around the world have seen similar ideas been proposed; sometimes rejected and sometimes realised. Evocative ruins have been sanitised to make them prettier for the camera or sexier for a magazine advert.

A tourist trap the Taj Mahal it is, of course. It’s one of those places where we gather with the other hoards of awe-stricken camera clicking fanatics. After all, the Taj Mahal pulls in three million people yearly. But it’s presently threatened much more by greed than by improvement.

“The people who come to see the Taj are not the kind of people who like to go by ropeway or see it in front of a Ferris wheel”, says the spokesman for the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, OP Jain.

Mr. Jain is so right. We all like a bit of fun, in the likes of noisy, crazy fun. But some things are off limits even when it comes to this kind of fun.

We would like to thank www.telegraph.co.uk for quotes used in this article.