Golf alternative in brief / WED 8-16-23 / Builder of the monument depicted in this puzzle / Focus of some cognitive therapy for short

Constructor: Mangesh Ghogre and Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Medium 

THEME: Taj Mahal— circled squares form an outline of the Taj Mahal and contain information about the Taj Mahal (including the name "Taj Mahal," right at the top); then there's more Taj Mahal trivia scattered throughout:

Theme answers:

• SHAH JAHAN (38D: Builder of the monument depicted in this puzzle)
• ONION DOME (41D: Architectural feature depicted by this puzzle's arching circled letters)
• INDIA (3D: Home to the monument depicted in this puzzle)
• SPIRE (12D: Architectural feature depicted between 7- and 8-Down)
• TOMB (75A: Type of structure that this puzzle's theme is a grand example of)
• MINARETS (69A: Architectural features depicted by this puzzle's vertical circled squares)
• FOUR (58D: Number of 69-Across surrounding the monument depicted in this puzzle)
• AGRA (67D: Home to the monument depicted in this puzzle) 

Word of the Day: SHAH JAHAN (38D) —

Mirza Shahab-ud-Din Baig Muhammad Khan Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), also known as Shah Jahan I (Persian pronunciation: [ʃɑːh d͡ʒahɑːn];  lit. 'King of the World'), was the fifth Muslim emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mughals reached the peak of their architectural achievements and cultural glory. He was Aurangzeb's father.

The third son of Jahangir (r. 1605–1627), Shah Jahan participated in military campaigns against the Rajputs of Mewar and the Lodis of the Deccan. After Jahangir's death in October 1627, Shah Jahan defeated his youngest brother Shahryar Mirza and crowned himself emperor in the Agra Fort. In addition to Shahryar, Shah Jahan executed most of his rival claimants to the throne. He commissioned many monuments, including the Red Fort, Shah Jahan Mosque and the Taj Mahal, where his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal is entombed. In foreign affairs, Shah Jahan presided over the aggressive campaigns against the Deccan Sultanates, the conflicts with the Portuguese, and the wars with Safavids. He also suppressed several local rebellions, and dealt with the devastating Deccan famine of 1630–32.

In September 1657, Shah Jahan was ailing and appointed his eldest son Dara Shikoh as his successor. This nomination led to a succession crisis among his three sons, from which Shah Jahan's third son Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707) emerged victorious and became the sixth emperor, executing all of his surviving brothers, including Crown Prince Dara Shikoh. After Shah Jahan recovered from his illness in July 1658, Aurangzeb imprisoned his father in Agra Fort from July 1658 until his death in January 1666. He was laid to rest next to his wife in the Taj Mahal. His reign is known for doing away with the liberal policies initiated by Akbar. During Shah Jahan's time, Islamic revivalist movements like the Naqsbandibegan to shape Mughal policies (wikipedia) 

It's a picture. An intricate picture. Lots of trivia. As an architectural achievement (!) it's impressive. As a crossword puzzle, it wasn't terribly fun to solve. I figured out it was the Taj Mahal early. "OOH, look at that, the Taj Mahal, cool." And then all that followed was trivia. MINARETS, FOUR, AGRA ... yes, these are all true about the Taj Mahal, but this was all mere description. Once you see it's the Taj Mahal, the puzzle has nothing left to offer except some facts and figures. I did enjoy figuring out that the ONION DOME depicted in this puzzle actually spelled out TAJ MAHAL—that was a neat trick, and helped me remember what the hell "salt" was in Spanish (SAL) (25D: Spanish seasoning). And I'd never heard of SHAH JAHAN, so at least that bit of trivia was new (to me). But otherwise, solving this puzzle felt like coloring by numbers or completing a dot-to-dot puzzle. Very little actual crossword pleasure. The fill is very compromised by the (admittedly ambitious and complex) grid structure, so there's just a slew of short stuff, much of it unpretty. And then the hunk of material in the middle (HASNT ASTO ESIGNS LTGOV) is somewhat unpleasant as well. SWINGS AT MINARETS makes things somewhat more interesting down below (is that like "tilting at windmills"?), but mainly what you've got here is the outline of the Taj Mahal and then a bunch of highly segmented little nooks and crannies, all of them unsurprisingly stuffed with ho-hum or stale stuff. ELHI, yeesh, haven't seen that in a while. My favorite part (outside certain admirable parts of the theme execution) was probably VWJETTA into FJORD. I swept up into that crossing from below and it felt ... precarious and fun, like I'd gone around a hairpin turn really fast. Cool letter juxtapositions. Loved it. But no other fill gave me a thrill. And that "SPIRE," quote unquote??? I looked at the grid online to see if they'd done something elaborate with it and no, there's just a somewhat darker line (between REM and ANA). The "wow" of the puzzle kind of stops with the revelation that the puzzle is visually depicting the Taj Mahal. After that, it's mostly just symmetrical trivia and a lot of subpar fill.