Taj Mahal Begun

1632

On a platform beside the Yamuna at Agra, twenty thousand workers began laying the foundations of a white marble mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal. Calligraphers, lapidaries, and gem-cutters were summoned from Persia, Central Asia, and Europe. The project would consume Shah Jahan's treasury and twenty-two years of labor, producing a building that travelers would call the most beautiful on earth.