时隔20年泰姬陵再次在月夜敞开大门

18次大中小

Taj Mahal to resume night visits

The Taj Mahal was built to express an emperor's love for his wife

The Taj Mahal is to open on moonlit evenings 20 years after security fears ended night visits.

India's Supreme Court will allow the famous monument to love to open four nights a month, initially for three months.

The Taj, built in the 1600s by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a shrine for his wife, is a World Heritage site.

Only 400 visitors will be let in each night, and parking restrictions will be imposed around the marble mausoleum.

The Supreme Court announcement came as state officials in Uttar Pradesh were celebrating the Taj's 350th anniversary close to its site in the city of Agra.

State tourism minister Kaukab Hamid described the ruling as "heartening".

"This reopening of the Taj for moonlight viewing is going to draw fantastic crowds from across the globe," he said.

"We will ensure strict security and follow visitor guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court."

Tourist chiefs said more than 300,000 foreigners visited the Taj Mahal site in 2003, but numbers are down since the terror attacks in the US on 11 September 2001.

Night visits to the Taj, once a romantic highlight of any visit to India, were banned in 1984 amid fears that militant Sikhs battling the government would attack the shrine.

The Sikh insurgency ended in the mid-1990s, but Indian authorities have remained reluctant to let visitors back to the Taj after sunset.

During the height of tensions between India and Pakistan in 2001, officials drew up plans to camouflage the Taj to disguise it from possible Pakistani air attacks.

There were also fears that a militant Kashmiri separatist group, Laskhar-e-Toiba, was planning to try and blow up the shrine.

Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as an expression of love for his wife Mumtaz Mahal.

Situated on the banks of River Yamuna, the shrine is largely made of white marble that reflects the changes of colour visible during sunset and clear, moonlit nights.

It was designated as a Unesco World Heritage site in 1983, meaning the Indian Supreme Court must rule on major works or changes likely to impact on the site.

印度泰姬陵即将在月光照耀的夜晚（对游人）开放。20年前，出于安全考虑，泰姬陵取消了晚间观光活动。

印度最高法院将允许这座著名的“爱情纪念物”每月有四天在夜间开放，初步决定试行三个月。

世界遗产泰姬陵是17世纪印度莫卧儿王朝的皇帝沙贾汗为爱妻修建的陵墓。

每晚只有400名游客有机会入内参观，大理石陵墓周围还将强制执行停车管制。

印度最高法院的法令出台前不久，印度北方邦的官员们在位于阿格拉市的陵墓附近为泰姬陵落成350周年举行了庆祝纪念活动。

国家旅游部长考卡布·哈米德称这一决定是“令人振奋的”。

“泰姬陵在月明之夜重新开放将会吸引来自世界各地的人们，届时游客数量将是惊人的。”他说。

“我们将严格确保泰姬陵的安全，遵守最高法院发布的观光游览守则。”

旅游部门的负责人说，2003年总共有30多万外国游客前来参观泰姬陵，但自2001年美国发生9/11恐怖袭击事件后，游客数量与以前相比还是有所下降。

夜游泰姬陵曾是印度之旅中一个精彩浪漫的亮点，但在1984年，印度政府由于担心泰姬陵遭到反政府武装锡克教的袭击，下令禁止在夜间参观泰姬陵。

上世纪90年代中期，锡克教叛乱被平定，但是印度当局仍然不愿意让游客在日落之后重返泰姬陵。

2001年，印度和巴基斯坦之间的紧张局面发展到顶点，印度官方甚至草拟了伪装泰姬陵的计划，以应对巴基斯坦可能进行的空袭。