Is this the world's most famous building? And its most romantic (ignoring the sprawling, industrial city around it, and the hordes of rickshaw-wallahs and touts)? Described by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore as "a teardrop on the face of eternity," the Taj Mahal in Agra was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child in 1631. It's an extravagant, white-marble monument to love, which may explain all the young, starry-eyed couples wandering around it.
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Text reproduced with permission from Bluelist 2007, copyright 2006 Lonely Planet Publications. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced except with permission in writing from the publisher.
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