The Taj Mahal (Persian for Crown of Palaces)
is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river
in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor,
Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–1658), to house the tomb of his favorite wife,
Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 42-acre complex, which includes
a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three
sides by a crenellated wall.
Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed
in 1643 but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10
years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its
entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million
rupees, which today would be approximately 52.8 billion rupees (US$827
million). The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under
the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the
emperor.
The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage
Site in 1983 for being "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the
universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".
