The white marble Taj Mahal was being chemically cleaned for the past few months.
The Taj Mahal is being spruced up for the coming visit of England's Prince William and his wife Kate, and the pinnacle of a minaret that was supposed to have fallen off had merely been brought down for repairs. This was what the Archeological Survey of India told NDTV this evening - a day after the "fallen" pinnacle of the nearly 400-year-old monument created a huge buzz in the social media.
"This was not an accident but simply routine" said an official. The pinnacle, made of brass, often gets oxidized and has to be replaced, he explained.
Despite assurances to the contrary by the ASI - which has been in charge of the upkeep of the UNESCO World heritage site -- speculation was rife on social media that the pinnacle had "fallen off" and had "broken to pieces".
Cleaning of the Taj has been on since last year and the operation has been going in full swing since the announcement that Prince William and Kate will be visiting India in April.
Taj Mahal will be one of the highlights of the royal visit - along with Mumbai's Taj Hotel, which had been a target of the 2008 terror attacks, Assam's Kaziranga park.
The Taj is being given 'mud pack therapy' - a method of chemical cleaning that reduces the yellowness caused by pollution and restore the lustre of the monument's marble surface.