The Taj Mahal, India’s biggest tourist attraction, will reopen its doors on Wednesday, the government said on Monday, two months after it was closed due to a deadly outbreak of Covid-19 contamination in the country.
The number of coronavirus-related infections and deaths in the nation of 1.3 billion people hit record highs in April and May, prompting authorities to impose lockdowns and other restrictions to curb the spread of the disease.
Contamination has decreased in recent weeks. Major cities, including the capital New Delhi and the financial center of Mumbai, have started to lift restrictions on travel and activities.
One of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal was closed in March 2020, when India imposed one of the strictest lockdowns on the planet at the start of the pandemic. It reopened in September 2020 to a limited number of visitors, before closing again in mid-April.
Built in the 17th century in northern India, in Agra (about 180 km south of New Delhi), in the state of Uttar Pradesh hard hit by the last wave of contaminations and deaths, this white marble mausoleum is the most visited monument in the country with seven million annual visitors.
An architectural jewel of Indo-Islamic art, it was built by the Mughal Emperor Shâh Jahân in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631, and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
In the name of Covid-19 precautions, visitors will not be allowed to touch the shiny marble of the mausoleum, an official from the Archaeological Inspectorate of India explained.
“All the necessary precautions against Covid have been taken“, he assured AFP.
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