THE MENTOR "A Wise and Faithful Guide and Friend" Vol. I No. 33 BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS of the WORLD TAJ MAHAL SALISBURY CATHEDRAL THE ALHAMBRA [Illustration] CHÂTEAU de CHAMBORD AMIENS CATHEDRAL NEW YORK CITY HALL _By CLARENCE WARD_ _Professor of Architecture, Rutgers College_ Beauty in architecture is as difficult to define as beauty in nature. No single factor renders a building beautiful. Size and proportion, style and decoration, age and setting, all enter into account. And moreover there is the power a building possesses to appeal to the ideals of the beholder, to his mind as well as to his sight and touch. Even when judged from this broad viewpoint, the number of beautiful buildings in the world is legion. It would be impossible to point to anyone as the finest, or even to select a dozen without leaving a dozen more that were equally beautiful. Every age, and every nation, has left to us some crowning achievements of the builder's art. The following are therefore merely selections from this storehouse, illustrating to some degree the wealth of architectural treasures that is our heritage. Few if any buildings in the world have been the subject of such praise as that bestowed upon the Taj Mahal ("Gem of Buildings"). Travelers, painters, authors, and poets have all sought to express in word or color the indefinable charm of this gem of Indian art. Built at Agra, in India, by the great mogul of Delhi, Shah Jahan, as a tomb for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj is a veritable translation into stone of human remembrance and affection. It was begun in 1632, and was completed in twenty-two years. The material of which it is built is pure white marble, and inlaid in its walls are jaspers, agates, and other stones in marvelous designs. But it is perhaps the dome that gives the greatest beauty to this tomb. Of typical Eastern shape, it rises a mass of white against the deep blue of the Indian sky, or shines like silver in the radiance of the Indian moon. [Illustration: THE TAJ MAHAL _The approach through the splendid gardens seen in the foreground is bordered by dark cypress trees, which contrast admirably with the color of the marble domes beyond._] THE WORLD'S MOST BEAUTIFUL TOMB