Taj Mahal attracting over 2.5 million visitors a year
Contributor August 4th, 2008
If ticket sales are anything to go by, the luminous 17th century Taj Mahal in Agra is the most popular monument in India, attracting over 2.5 million visitors a year.
The marble monument to love built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan that is listed among the seven wonders of the world was visited by an estimated 2,048,120 domestic and 491,351 foreign tourists in 2006.
These findings were put out by the ministry of tourism’s annual publication, “India Tourism Statistics,” based on figures collected from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
ASI, which is responsible for protection of cultural heritage in India, keeps records of the number of tickets sold to both Indian and foreign nationals at monuments. “Among all the monuments, Taj Mahal was the most visited monument in 2006 for domestic as well as foreign tourists,” the report said.
The monument in recent days has seen attempts by Shiv Sena activists to hold Hindu religious rituals there, as they argue it was built on the ruins of a Shiva temple.
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