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The Taj Mahal was built between 1632 and 1653 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth bearing their fourteenth child. Twenty thousand workers labored for over two decades. The white marble arrived from Rajasthan 300 kilometers away. The calligraphy was inlaid in black stone. The proportions were designed so the monument appears the same height whether you view it from the main gate or from the Yamuna River bank behind it. Walking up the central reflecting pool toward it for the first time is a physical experience: the scale and perfection are hard to process, and most visitors go quiet.

Agra was once a Mughal imperial capital before Akbar's new city at Fatehpur Sikri and eventually Delhi took precedence.

The Agra Fort, just a few kilometers from the Taj along the Yamuna, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its own right and far less visited by comparison, its red sandstone ramparts enclosing palaces and audience halls where Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb each left architectural marks. Shah Jahan is said to have spent the last eight years of his life imprisoned in the fort's Musamman Burj tower, gazing across the river at the Taj Mahal he had built for his wife.