As tourists like visiting new destinations so also readers like reading about unknown destinations.

Hence tourism is not limited to only one area and it is to travel for leisure purposes or for the provision of services to support recreational travel, this week Tourisphere takes one step further outside  Africa to bring you one amongst the most frequent destinations in the world, Taj Mahal, a beautiful structure built in the city of Agra, Utar Pradesh in India. We have been hearing about the word ‘ancient’ but what idea do we have about it? With so many outstanding modern monuments and the seven wonders of the middle ages and those of the modern world, the number of people who know what the ‘seven wonders of the ancient world’ are is very minimal. So also people in Africa especially in the west who know the history of Taj Mahal are countable.

Taj Mahal is a symbol of eternal affection. It stands for true love and it has been built in memory of two lovers, Prince Khurram and Arjuman Bano Begum, who loved each other more than their Creator. Taj Mahal has been an inspiration for those who are true lovers of arts, especially so for painters, poets, writers and musicians who try to express human emotions in the form of paintings, poetry and songs.

According to history, Taj Mahal was built in the blessed memory of the beautiful wife of Mughal Prince; her name was Arjuman Bano Begum. The Prince Khurram, and his wife loved each other so much that they never stayed away from each other, even when the prince went on for wars, they lived together.

When the prince became king after some years; he changed his name to ‘Shahjahan.’ This means ‘ruler/king of the whole world.’ He honoured his wife Arjuman Bano with the name ‘Mumtaz Mahal.’ The love continued as they wanted. Queen Mumtaz Mahal accompanied King Shahjahan in every campaign he set for, even in 1631when she was pregnant, she accompanied him to win the southern states of India. The magnificent Queen Mumtaz Mahal who gave birth to about fourteen children of which only four were males out of that only three male children survived, died in childbirth at Burhanpur at the age of 39 years.

When the Queen died the devastated King, according to some historians, was very sad that he imprisoned himself in a room in remembrance of his lovely wife. Some stories narrated that King Shahajahan banned music, feasts and and so many amusements for almost two years during his regime.

It could be remembered that no matter how hard the King tried he could not forget his brave and treacherous wife, Queen Mumtaz Mahal. Due to this he decided to build a huge, beautiful monument, entirely made up of marble which would be only one of its kind in the whole world for her blessed memory.

A garden on the banks of the Yamuna River was chosen to build the structure. The reason of chosing this spot was that there was no other structure which could overshadow the beauty and uniqueness of the structure he wanted to build. However, this was not just the only reason but the place was well visible from the King Shahajahan's palace in Fort of Agra.

The construction of the monument began in 1633. The monument was so huge that about 20,000 workers worked for more than 17 years to complete it. The main dome of Taj Mahal measures about 110 yards in circumference and is about 107 yards above the ground. The base on which the Taj Mahal is resting is called Mahajar-e-Mushababbak, which was specially designed by Turkish designers. It is said that the tombs of Humayun and Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana (Delhi) inspired the design and structure of the monument at certain extent. The cost of building such a huge architectural structure was about 50 lakhs in those days.