Mumbai, India
Opened: 1903
Architects: Sitaram Khanderao Vaidya and D. N. Mirza
Completed By: W.A. Chambers
When terrorists targeted the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel on November 26, 2008, they attacked an important symbol of Indian affluence and sophistication.
Located in the historic city of Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is an architectural landmark with a rich history. The noted Indian industrialist Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata commissioned the hotel at the turn of the 20th century. The bubonic plague had devastated Bombay (now Mumbai), and Tata wanted to improve the City and to establish its reputation as an important financial center.
Most of the Taj Hotel was designed by an Indian architect, Sitaram Khanderao Vaidya. When Vaidya died, the British architect W.A. Chambers completed the project. With distinctive onion domes and pointed arches, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel combined Moorish and Byzantine design with European ideas. W.A. Chambers expanded the size of the central dome, but most of the Hotel reflects Vaidya's original plans.
