Welcome to the Taj Mahal

In the summer of 1631, Mumtaz Mahal — beloved wife of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan — died giving birth to their fourteenth child. She was 38 years old, and she had been her husband's constant companion for nineteen years, following him on military campaigns, advising him on matters of state, and bearing his children across the length of his empire. When she died, Shah Jahan was so devastated that he reportedly did not eat for a week and went into mourning for two years, emerging with his hair said to have turned white overnight.

His response was to build her the most magnificent tomb the world had ever seen — a monument so beautiful that even 400 years later, five million people a year make the journey to Agra just to stand before it.

Construction began in 1632, employing over 20,000 workers drawn from India, Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Europe. They worked under a team of architects led by Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, using white Makrana marble quarried from Rajasthan and inlaid with 28 types of semi-precious stones — carnelian from Arabia, jade from China, turquoise from Tibet, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. The project took 22 years and was completed in 1653.

Today you will walk through all eight key sites of the Taj Mahal complex — from the magnificent gateway that frames your first glimpse of the dome, to the moonlight garden across the Yamuna River where you can look back and see the whole monument reflected in the river at your feet. Along the way, you will discover an optical illusion built into the minarets, a love story encoded in flower petals carved from jade and carnelian, and the poignant final chapter of an emperor who spent his last years imprisoned with only a view of his wife's tomb to comfort him.