From the main entrance gate, a few
steps take the visitors down into the Taj gardens. It is a rectangular shape measuring
1860 feet from North to South, and 1000 feet from East to west. In style it is
like other Mughal gardens. The Garden in the Taj were designed by All Mardan Khan,
who was a noble in the Mughal court.
Fountains and running channels
of water with large reservoirs are typical of their garden designs. Water was
drawn up from the river Jamuna by a system of buckets, dipping into the river
and conveying water up by, a chain way, drawn by the bullocks or by camel power.
The river water was collected in some big reservoirs on the top of the rooms situated
in the middle of the garden walls on both the sides of the Taj enclosure.
From these artificial reservoirs on the walls, water was taken through iron
pipes to the fountains and the running water channels. The canal is 10.5 feet
wide, which run straight to the Mansoleum. It has 84 fountains in the middly of
it and the length of the canal is 412 feet. On both the sides of this canal, there
is a marble pathway, pawed with slabs of free stones arranged in a fanciful geometrical
pattern. Dark cypress trees, which are symbols of gentle sorrow, line in the avenues
and add a grave dignity to this scene.