The Bangladeshi Taj Mahal

Ahsanullah Moni is a wealthy Bangladeshi film-maker(a well respected figure in Dhaliwood) who aims to be Shah Jahan II. Mr. Moni has over the past 5 years spent a lot of his time and money to construct a copy of the Taj Mahal, considered to be among the new seven wonders of the world.

Mr Moni has spent US$58 million (S$87 million) to build the ‘Bangladeshi Taj Mahal‘ importing marble and granite from Italy, diamonds from Belgium and 160 kilograms of bronze. Mr. Moni said that he wanted his countrymen to experience the beauty of the Indian monument even if they were too poor to travel to see the original (Source). The copy-cat monument is situated in Sonargaon, 30 kilometres north-east of the capital Dhaka. Mr. Moni justifies his intent to build his version of the Taj saying that while it costs 20,000 taka for a Bangladeshi to see the Taj in Agra it only costs 50 taka( recently increased to 100 taka) for them to see his version of the taj.

Well, we sure hope that this doesn’t inspire people in other countries to construct their own versions of the seven wonders, cause when it comes to traveling and sightseeing there is nothing like seeing the original.