Taj Mahal Construction Begins

In 1631, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan began building a great mausoleum at Agra, in northern India, for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal, finished around 1653, is widely regarded as the finest achievement of Mughal architecture and one of the most recognizable buildings on Earth. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 and was later chosen as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a popular poll in 2007.

Shah Jahan ruled over the Mughal Empire at the height of its wealth and cultural confidence. His wife, born Arjumand Banu Begum, was his close companion and trusted confidante, and she accompanied him on military campaigns. She died in 1631 in Burhanpur, after giving birth to their fourteenth child. Accounts of the emperor's grief are well attested, though the more romantic details that circulate today are hard to verify. Her body was later moved to Agra for burial.

The complex was laid out on the bank of the Yamuna River. Its centerpiece is a white marble tomb raised on a large platform, topped by a bulbous central dome and flanked by four slender minarets. The design blends Persian, Islamic, and Indian traditions, and includes a formal garden divided into quarters by water channels, a style associated with Mughal ideas of paradise. The marble is inlaid with semiprecious stones and carved with calligraphy from the Quran. Materials were brought from across India and beyond, and a very large workforce of laborers, masons, and craftsmen took part. Specific numbers quoted in popular sources vary widely and should be treated cautiously. The main tomb was completed first, with the surrounding buildings and grounds finished over the following years.

The cost was enormous, and some historians have suggested that Shah Jahan's lavish building projects strained the imperial treasury. In 1658 his son Aurangzeb seized the throne during a war of succession and kept his father confined in the Agra Fort for the rest of his life. Shah Jahan died in 1666 and was buried beside Mumtaz Mahal in the Taj Mahal.

Familiar legends, such as the story that Shah Jahan planned a matching black marble tomb across the river or that he had workers mutilated to prevent a rival structure, are not supported by solid evidence. The real story is remarkable enough. Today the Taj Mahal draws millions of visitors each year and stands as a symbol of India. Conservators work to protect its marble from air pollution and the changing course of the river.