Dubai says it will invest $1 billion to build a copy of India’s Taj Mahal mausoleum, but bigger, richer and much more functional than the original.
The ambitious project is planned to be complete by 2014, whilst it took over a decade to build the original monument back in the 17th century.
The new Taj Mahal dubbed the New City of Love will host a 300-bedroom hotel, a shopping center, commercial area and much more, the developer Arun Mehra said according to the BBC. The developers also hope that the new Taj Mahal will become a “symbol of love and will include facilities to encapsulate the beauty of life, love and romance mixed with the long established Mughal architecture.”
The people behind the project plan to go beyond just replicating the Taj Mahal. The new complex will also house replicas of the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China.
The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built the original white marble Taj Mahal in the northern Indian town of Agra as a love monument to his dead third wife Mumtaz.
The complex in Dubai has been on the drawing board for some time but the global economic downturn forced the developer to suspend the project.
