History

As part of the struggle for succession, Shah Jahan was put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort by his son Aurangzeb, and legend has it that he spent the remainder of his days there gazing from a window at the Taj. Upon Shah Jahan's death, Aurengzeb buried him in the Taj Mahal, next to his wife, the only disruption of the otherwise perfect symmetry in the architecture.By the late 19th century, parts of the Taj Mahal had fallen badly into disrepair. During the time of the Mutiny, the Taj faced defacement by British soldiers, sepoys and government officials who chiselled out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls. At the end of the 19th century, British viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a restoration project. At the same time the traditional garden was replaced with the more English-looking lawns that are visible today.

By the 20th century the Taj Mahal was being better taken care of. In 1942, the British Raj erected a behemoth scaffolding over it in anticipation of a air attack on it by the German Luftwaffe and later by the Japanese Air Force. During the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, scaffoldings were erected by the Government of India to mislead would-be bomber pilots. Its most recent threats came from environmental pollution on the banks of the Jamuna river, acid rain occurring due to the Mathura oil refinery (something opposed by Supreme Court of India directives).

The Taj Mahal, as of 1983, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major tourist destination.

The Taj is one of the nominees for the modern seven wonders of the world. From Wikipedia