Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal lives up to all the hype. At sunrise, it surpasses it. I visited the Taj on a few occasions. It got better each time. (My landlord here agrees that it improves with age. I think it's the only thing on which we see eye-to-eye.) The work that went into it—20,000 workers over 20 years—is impressive: marble is cut with precision, inlays are intricate, windows with honey-combed openings are carved from single stone slabs, the facade is massive.

I think my favorite part is its story. (Pre-emptive apology for the brief history lesson.) The Taj was built to commemorate an Indian emperor's wife. Shah Jahan, who ruled the Mughal empire for thirty years in the 17th century, lost his beloved Mumtaz Mahal to pregnancy complications. He commissioned India's largest mausoleum in her memory. The emperor soon lost power to his sons, who locked him away in a palace. He could see the Taj only from afar and spent his final years admiring its beauty from a distant window. Shah Jahan is said to have loved his wife more than anything. It shows.

Imprisoned by his son, the disrobed Shah Jahn stared through latticed windows in his palace. He had this view of the Taj Mahal.