TAJ MAHAL
The Taj Mahal ' Crown of the Palace ' ) is an ivory-e marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra , Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal emperor , Shah Jahan ( r. 1628–1658 ) to house the tomb of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal ; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself. The tomb is the centerpiece of a 17-hectare (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 completed in 1648, but work continued on other phases of the project for another five years. The first ceremony held at the mausoleum was an observance by Shah Jahan, on 6 February 1643, of the 12th anniversary of the death of Mumtaz Mahal. 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 ₹ 5 million, which in 2023 would be approximately