Shah Jahan's throne reportedly cost twice as much as the Taj Mahal.
The Peacock Throne of gold and gems took seven years to make; Nader Shah carried it off from Delhi in 1739.
The events
- The Peacock Throne1635 · Agra. In 1635 Shah Jahan first sat on a throne that jewellers had worked on for seven years: gold, rubies, emeralds and pearls, crowned with peacocks. It reportedly cost twice as much as the Taj Mahal. Nader Shah carried it off to Iran in 1739, and it later vanished.
- Building of the Taj Mahal1632–1653 · Agra. Mughal emperor Shah Jahan began building a white marble mausoleum in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Built by thousands of craftsmen, the Taj Mahal became the masterpiece of Mughal architecture.
More amazing facts
- 1628 · 1961 The Swedish warship Vasa sank in 1628 about 1,300 metres into her maiden voyage.
- 1632 Legend says the first Ottoman flyer was rewarded with a bag of gold — and then exiled.
- 1633 · 1992 The Catholic Church admitted its error in the Galileo case 359 years later.
- 1633 The Ottoman sultan Murad IV banned coffee on pain of death.
- 1633 · 1757 'And yet it moves!' first appeared in print in 1757, 115 years after Galileo's death.
- 1636 · 1703 Harvard is 67 years older than St Petersburg: the Massachusetts college was founded in 1636, and Peter the Great founded his city on the Neva in 1703.