Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal's design is credited by Shah Jahan's court chronicles to Ustad Ahmad Lahori, though the attribution is debated among historians because Mughal building projects rarely named a single architect. Construction ran from around 1632 to 1653, with the mausoleum itself finished by 1643 and the surrounding charbagh garden, mosque, and guesthouse completed over the following decade. The four minarets flanking the plinth lean fractionally outward, a deliberate engineering choice so that in the event of an earthquake they would fall away from the central dome rather than onto it. Shah Jahan intended to build a mirror-image mausoleum in black marble on the opposite riverbank, a plan cut short when his son Aurangzeb deposed him in 1658 and imprisoned him in Agra Fort, from where he could only view the Taj Mahal across the Yamuna. He was buried beside Mumtaz Mahal after his death in 1666, his cenotaph the one asymmetrical element in an otherwise mirrored building. UNESCO inscribed the complex as a World Heritage Site in 1983.

Taj Mahal closes entirely on Fridays for congregational prayers at the mosque inside the complex, a closure that catches a meaningful share of first-time visitors unaware. Security screening at both the Western and Eastern Gates prohibits food, tobacco, tripods, power banks above a certain capacity, and books; small bags are permitted but are physically searched. Shoe covers are handed out free at the base of the marble plinth and must be worn, or shoes removed entirely, before stepping onto the platform. Entry to the mausoleum's inner chamber requires the separate ₹200 ticket and moves in a single-file queue that can take 20–30 minutes at midday; photography inside the chamber is prohibited, though the exterior allows unrestricted photography. Licensed guides wear a numbered badge issued by the Ministry of Tourism and typically charge ₹700–₹1,000 for a 90-minute circuit in English.

Taj Mahal's sunrise entry at the Western Gate rewards visitors with the shortest queues of the day and the particular colour shift in the marble as the sun clears the tree line. Night viewing operates on five nights each lunar month — the full moon night plus two nights before and two after, excluding Fridays and Ramadan — with tickets sold only 24 hours in advance for ₹510 Indian and ₹750 foreign, capped at 400 visitors across eight thirty-minute batches. Mehtab Bagh, on the opposite riverbank, gives an unobstructed view of the same façade without the crowd density of the main complex and is worth the short auto-rickshaw detour. Battery-powered buses and golf carts run free from the Shilpgram drop-off point to the ticket gates for foreign-ticket holders, since diesel vehicles are barred within 500 metres of the monument under a Supreme Court order protecting the marble from pollution.