Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel stands beside the Gateway of India on Mumbai's waterfront, commissioned by the Indian industrialist Jamsetji Tata and opened on December 16, 1903. Its design, credited to the architect W. A. Chambers with the Indian engineers Sitaram Khanderao Vaidya and D. N. Mirza, blends Moorish, Oriental and Florentine architectural elements beneath a distinctive red onion-shaped dome that has become one of Mumbai's best known landmarks. The hotel was heavily damaged in the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, during which gunmen held the building under siege for several days, and it was subsequently restored and reopened. It remains one of India's most prominent hotels and a symbol of the city's waterfront skyline.