The Taj Mahal, is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.
A shrine is a sacred or holy space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated. A shrine at which votive offerings are made is called an altar.
Mughal architecture is the type of Indo-Islamic architecture developed by the Mughals in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries throughout the ever-changing extent of their empire in the Indian subcontinent. It developed the styles of earlier Muslim dynasties in India as an amalgam of Islamic, Persian, Turkish and Indian architecture. Mughal buildings have a uniform pattern of structure and character, including large bulbous domes, slender minarets at the corners, massive halls, large vaulted gateways, and delicate ornamentation; Examples of the style can be found in modern-day Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
The Mosque City of Bagerhat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Bagerhat District, Bangladesh. It contains 360 mosques, public buildings, mausoleums, bridges, roads, water tanks and other public buildings constructed from baked brick. The mosques were built during the Bengal Sultanate in the 15th-century, of which the Sixty Dome Mosque is the largest. Other mosques include the Singar Mosque, the Nine Dome Mosque, the Tomb of Khan Jahan, the Bibi Begni Mosque and the Ronvijoypur Mosque. The mosques were built during the governorship of Ulugh Khan Jahan, a Turkic military officer appointed as governor in the Sundarbans by Sultan Mahmud Shah of Bengal.
As of July 2021, there are a total of 1,154 World Heritage Sites located in 167 States Parties, of which 897 are cultural, 218 are natural and 39 are mixed properties. The countries have been divided by the World Heritage Committee into five geographic zones: Africa, Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Italy, with 58 entries, has the highest number of World Heritage Sites. 29 state parties have no properties inscribed on the World Heritage List: Bahamas, Bhutan, Brunei, Burundi, Comoros, Cook Islands, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Kuwait, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Maldives, Monaco, Nauru, Niue, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago and Tuvalu.
The Tomb of Jahangir is a 17th-century mausoleum built for the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. The mausoleum dates from 1637, and is located in Shahdara Bagh in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, along the banks of the Ravi River. The site is famous for its interiors that are extensively embellished with frescoes and marble, and its exterior that is richly decorated with pietra dura. The tomb, along with the adjacent Akbari Sarai and the Tomb of Asif Khan, are part of an ensemble currently on the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status.
Architecture of Central Asia refers to the architectural styles of the numerous societies that have occupied Central Asia throughout history. These styles include Timurid architecture of the 14th and 15th centuries, Islamic-influenced Persian architecture and 20th century Soviet Modernism. Central Asia is an area that encompasses land from the Xinjiang Province of China in the East to the Caspian Sea in the West. The region is made up of the countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. The influence of Timurid Architecture can be recognised in numerous sites in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, whilst the influence of Persian Architecture is seen frequently in Uzbekistan and in some examples in Turkmenistan. Examples of Soviet Architecture can be found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The Qutub Shahi Tombs are located in the Ibrahim Bagh, close to the famous Golconda Fort in Hyderabad, India. They contain the tombs and mosques built by the various kings of the Qutub Shahi dynasty. The galleries of the smaller tombs are of a single storey while the larger ones are two storied. In the centre of each tomb is a sarcophagus which overlies the actual burial vault in a crypt below. The domes were originally overlaid with blue and green tiles, of which only a few pieces now remain.
Pakistani architecture is intertwined with the architecture of the broader Indian subcontinent. With the beginning of the Indus civilization around the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, for the first time in the area which encompasses today's Pakistan an advanced urban culture developed with large structural facilities, some of which survive to this day. This was followed by the Gandhara style of Buddhist architecture that borrowed elements from Ancient Greece. These remnants are visible in the Gandhara capital of Taxila.
Ala-Buka a village which is the seat of Ala-Buka District of Jalal-Abad Region, Kyrgyzstan. Its population was 15,426 in 2021.
The Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania is a funerary monument located on the road between Cherchell and Algiers, in Tipaza Province, Algeria. The mausoleum is the tomb where the Numidian Berber King Juba II and the Queen Cleopatra Selene II, sovereigns of Numidia and Mauretania Caesariensis, were allegedly buried. However, their human remains have not been found at the site, perhaps due to tomb raiding.
Sheikh Safi al-Din Khānegāh and Shrine Ensemble is the tomb of Sheikh Safi-ad-din Ardabili located in Ardabil, Iran. In 2010, it was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This monument is situated in the Ali-Ghapu area.
Safedbulan is a village in Ala-Buka District, Jalal-Abad Region, Kyrgyzstan. Its population was 6,707 in 2021. It is also an archaeological reserve that is considered sacred for Muslims. The village is in an area in the north-western part of the Fergana Valley, on the border with Uzbekistan. It lies on the river Chanachsay, 14 km east of Ala-Buka and 11 km southwest of Kerben. The settlement is at least one thousand years old and is mentioned in medieval, Arabic and Persian scriptures under the name Isbid Bulan.
The Tomb of Ahmad Sanjar is a mausoleum commemorating Ahmad Sanjar, a Seljuk ruler of Khorasan. It was built in 1157 in the medieval city of Merv in the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. Throughout his reign, Sanjar fought off several invasions and uprisings until finally being defeated by the Oghuz. After being sacked by the Oghuz, Merv declined and in 1221, the Mongols attacked it and burned down the mausoleum. It would later be restored by Soviet, Turkmen, and Turkish architects during the 20th and 21st centuries. The tomb is part of The State Historical and Cultural Park "Ancient Merv", a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam located in Multan, Pakistan, is the mausoleum of the Sufi saint Sheikh Rukn-ud-Din Abul Fateh. The shrine is considered to be the earliest example of Tughluq architecture, and is one of the most impressive shrines in the Indian subcontinent. The shrine attracts over 100,000 pilgrims to the annual urs festival that commemorates his death.
Silk Roads: The Routes Network of Chang'an-Tian Shan Corridor is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which covers the Chang'an-Tianshan portion of the ancient Silk Road and historical sites along the route. On June 22, 2014, UNESCO designated a 5,000 km stretch of the Silk Road network from Central China to the Zhetysu region of Central Asia as a World Heritage site. The corridor spans China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and includes 33 new sites and several previously designated heritage sites.
Tourism in Iraq refers to tourism in the Western Asian country Iraq. The capital city Baghdad is the second largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. Iraq has several Islamic pilgrimage sites related to Shia Islam. Iraq is considered to be a potential location for ecotourism. Erbil was chosen as "Arab Tourism Capital" in 2014 by the Arab Tourism Committee. Yet, the cities of Karbala and Najaf are the most popular tourist destinations in Iraq due to the location of religious sites in the country.
The Gawhar Shad Mausoleum, also known as the Tomb of Baysunghur, is an Islamic burial structure located in what is now Herat, Afghanistan. Built in the 15th century, the structure served as a royal tomb for members of the Timurid dynasty and is part of the Musalla Complex.
The Khalili Collection of the Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage is a private collection of around 4,500 items relating to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca which is a religious duty in Islam. It is one of eight collections assembled, conserved, published and exhibited by the British-Iranian scholar, collector and philanthropist Nasser Khalili; each collection is considered among the most important in its field. The collection's 300 textiles include embroidered curtains from the Kaaba, the Station of Abraham, the Mosque of the Prophet Muhammad and other holy sites, as well as textiles that would have formed part of pilgrimage caravans from Egypt or Syria. It also has illuminated manuscripts depicting the practice and folklore of the Hajj as well as photographs, art pieces, and commemorative objects relating to the Hajj and the holy sites of Mecca and Medina.
