2. It took at least 20,000 people 22 years to build it. The artisans that worked on the Taj are reputed to have had their hands cut off after the building was completed to prevent them building a comparable building.

3.The Taj Mahal has been declared a world heritage site.

4. Taj Mahal means Crown Palace and is regarded by some as the most well presented and architecturally beautiful tomb in the world. The tomb of Queen Mumtaz Mahal stands on a raised terrace with four minarets, one at each corner, framing the tomb.

5. The Taj Mahal was constructed using material from all over India and Asia. More than 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials during the construction.

6. It has an area of approximately 1,900ft by 1,000ft and compromises of five main components: the darwaza (gateway), the bageecha (garden), the charbagh ( garden divided into 4 parts) masjid (mosque) and finally the mausoleum (tomb).

7. Legend has it, that Shah Jehan decided to construct a second Taj Mahal in black marble on the other side of the river Yamuna. This structure was intended to be his own tomb, but it was never built.

8. There is a play about the Taj Mahal called Taj taking place at the Darlington Arts Centre. The play centres on issues of identity, culture and belonging. It fuses eastern and western cultures and follows the travels of Maryam, a physicist dying of cancer, on her trip to the Taj Mahal.

9. Princess Diana made an infamous trip to the Taj Mahal in 1992, where she pointedly posed for photos alone.

10. The construction of the Taj Mahal was an multinational affair. It was designed by the Persian (or possibly Turkish) architect Ustad Isa. He was accompanied by Isa Muhammad Effendi, a pupil of the greatest Turkish architect Sinan, who presumably drew the final plan of the building, a Venetian named Geronimo Veroneo, who played a major role in the planning stage of the construction, and Amanat Khan Shirazi, a Persian who was possibly in charge of the calligraphy.