"Should guilty seek asylum here
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sights;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display thereby the Creator's glory."
-Shah Jahan on Taj Mahal
A king's expression of sorrow at the death of his beloved wife, a tribute to exquisite beauty, a monument of love, the grandeur of the Mughal Empire, Islamic art and architecture at its finest: all these fall short in describing the Taj Mahal.
One of the wonders of the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site, the majestic Taj Mahal cannot be described in any way so as to do justice to it. It is an experience to be felt and a sight to marvel at.
In 1631, Shah Jahan the emperor during the Mughal's period of greatest prosperity was grief-stikren when his beloved queen Mumtaz Mahal died during the birth of their 14th child. Before she passed away, Mumtaz Mahal had extracted 4 promises fron\m the king: he would build the taj, he would marry again, he would be kind to their children and that he would visit her tomb on her death anniversary.
However, due to ill health and being under house arrest by his son and successor to the throne Aurangzeb, Shah Jahan could not fulfill his last vow.
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