A shining star in the league of the eight wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal in India is sheer poetry in white marble. Its mind numbing beauty dazzles the onlooker only to keep him yearning forever to come back again and again to its premises.

The Taj Mahal in Agra India was built under the patronage of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his beloved queen Mumtaz Mahal. More properly, an "elegy in marble" the Taj Mahal was constructed after the Queen’s death and is a Mausoleum that houses the graves of Queen Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan at the lower chamber. Shah Jahan’s grave was added to the monument later. A huge gateway leads you to the Taj Gardens- an exquisite patch of lush lawns with a row of fountains in the centre leading to the monument. A central dome and four tall minarets on a raised square platform is the highlight of Taj Mahal which is said to display elements of Persian, Turkish, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles.

The Taj Mahal was constructed over a period of almost twenty-two years, with the construction beginning in 1632 and was completed in approximately 1648 at a cost of 32 Million Rupees. Twenty thousand workers- Expert craftsmen from Delhi, Qannauj, Lahore, and Multan were employed to materialize this marvelous marble fantasy. Legend has it that the emperor after the Taj was completed, maimed all the workers so that a duplicate of the Taj can never come up anywhere in the world.