Photo credit: Sanjayan

A Unesco World Heritage Site and considered one of the eight wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal is in Agra in the Indian state of Utterpradesh. Twenty-two thousand laborers and craftsmen worked on the mausoleum complex between A.D. 1631 and 1653, to the cost of what is believed to be thirty-two crore (320 million) rupees.

The Taj is built entirely out of white marble and follows the tenets of  Islamic architecture with a symmetry and balance that is felt to be unsurpassed. The Mughal emperor Shahjahan commissioned the masterpiece in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal.