The Taj Mahal is located on the right bank of the Yamuna River in a vast Mughal garden that encompasses nearly 17 hectares, in the Agra District in Uttar Pradesh. It was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal with construction starting in 1632 AD and completed in 1648 AD, with the mosque, the guest house and the main gateway on the south, the outer courtyard and its cloisters were added subsequently and completed in 1653 AD. The existence of several historical and Quaranic inscriptions in Arabic script have facilitated setting the chronology of Taj Mahal. For its construction, masons, stone-cutters, inlayers, carvers, painters, calligraphers, dome builders and other artisans were requisitioned from the whole of the empire and also from the Central Asia and Iran. Ustad-Ahmad Lahori was the main architect of the Taj Mahal.

Agra Fort, also called Red Fort, large 16th-century fortress of red sandstone located on the Yamuna River in the historic city of Agra, west-central Uttar Pradesh, north-central India. It was established by the Mughal emperor Akbar and, in its capacity as both a military base and a royal residence, served as the seat of government when the Mughal capital was in Agra. The structure, a contemporary of Humāyūn’s Tomb in Delhi (about 200 km to the northwest), reflects the architectural grandeur of the Mughal reign in India. The fort complex was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.