Taj Mahal. Photo: wikimedia commons.

Monument to love and beauty, India’s Taj Mahal is getting a mud-pack: 2mm’s of thick clay, rich in lime, will be applied to the surface, and left overnight to dry; upon removal, a process involving gentle friction, stains or impurities will “exfoliate,” resulting in a brightening. India’s white marble icon has shown yellow stains recently, as nearby urban Agra generates increasing pollution, perhaps intensified by emissions from a nearby oil refinery. According to B M Bhatnagar of the Archeological Survey of India, the Taj Mahal’s treatment is derived from a facial mud-pack, developed by traditional local beauties perhaps descended from Mumtaz Mahal, for whom the Taj Mahal was built in 1653.

For more about the Taj Mahal’s treatment: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27753788

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.