Developers in Dubai have announced plans to build a replica of India’s world famous tourist attraction, the Taj Mahal.
Dubai has proven many times over that if you have enough money you can build anything. It already has the world’s largest shopping mall, the Dubai Mall; the Burj Kahlifa, the worlds tallest building at 829.84m; and the Burj Al Arab, a 60-floor, 5-star hotel with a construction that mimics a sailing ship. Now, developers have revealed plans for a new complex to include a replica of the Taj Mahal.
Of course, this being Dubai, the developers are not content with just replicating the iconic mausoleum. Their version is planned to be nearly four times larger than the original, and to incorporate a 300-room hotel, shops and apartments. The development has an estimated cost of £618m, and will be known as the Taj Arabia.
Developer, Arun Mehra, announced the project as a future wedding venue. Gulf News quoted him as saying, ‘Marriage is a celebration. It needs to be announced and glorified. Currently Dubai is not regarded as a wedding destination. People go to Bali and other exotic places to marry. Now they will come to Taj Arabia.’
Many more of the world’s most famous buildings are also reportedly planned in some form for the Dubailand site, a huge world theme park. The Great Wall of China, the Egyptian pyramids, the UK’s houses of parliament and Paris’s Eiffel Tower are also amongst those in the process of construction.
The original Taj Mahal, in Agra, India, was completed by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1648, and was dedicated to the memory of his favourite wife.
