The Jawab - A Building Made Only for Symmetry

The Jawab - A Building Made Only for Symmetry

Photo: Kmohankar, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Taj Mahal and Agra: A Self-Guided Visit, a free self-guided tour.

On the east side of the tomb stands a building that looks exactly like the mosque you saw on the west - same red sandstone, same three white domes, same arches. This is the jawab, a word that means answer. It exists to answer the mosque, so the whole complex stays perfectly balanced.

But it could never be a mosque. A mosque must face Mecca, to the west, and this building faces the wrong way. Without a prayer niche, it may have served as a guest house or a hall for gatherings, but its main job was simply to make the picture whole.

This is a good place to understand the Mughal love of symmetry. Stand on the jawab terrace and look across to the mosque, then at the tomb between them. Everything balances around the center line you walked down from the Great Gate. Now head back through the garden and out to your car or auto-rickshaw for the ride to Agra Fort.

Getting here: Walk east along the terrace from the riverside, past the back of the tomb, to the red sandstone building on the east side.

Did you know?: The jawab even has a mirror-image water tank in front of it, matching the one at the mosque, though it was never needed for washing before prayer.

Photo op: From the jawab's front arches, frame the white tomb in early morning light, when the sun rises behind you on this side.

Nearby: Restrooms are back near the entrance gates. Leave by the East or West Gate and arrange your auto-rickshaw or car outside.

More on Wikipedia: Taj Mahal

Stops on this tour

  1. Taj Mahal East Gate - Where the Procession Began
  2. The Great Gate - A Frame for Paradise
  3. The Charbagh Garden - Paradise in Four Parts
  4. The Mausoleum - A Promise in White Marble
  5. Inside the Tomb - Flowers Made of Stone
  6. The Taj Mahal Mosque - Facing West to Pray
  7. The Riverside Terrace - Shah Jahan's River View
  8. The Jawab - A Building Made Only for Symmetry
  9. Agra Fort - The Hall Where the Emperor Listened
  10. Musamman Burj - Shah Jahan's Last View of the Taj
  11. Itimad-ud-Daulah - The Jewel Box Known as the Baby Taj
  12. Mehtab Bagh - The Moonlight Garden at Sunset