he Taj Mahal is the best-known building in the world and arguably the most beautiful. The architecture is sublime but it is the story that the stones embody that draws seven million visitors each year. 

It is a monument to the great love between the Mughal emperor Shah Jehan and his queen, Mumtaz Mahal. They could not bear to be parted and Mumtaz would often travel with her husband even into war. It was on one such campaign in 1631 that she died after giving birth to their 14th child.

Over the next 14 years Shah Jehan employed the empire’s best architects, builders and craftsmen to design this vision in white marble, decorated with precious and semi-precious stones sourced from all over Asia.