A Definitive Ranking of the Top 10 Sights in the World

How do you achieve architectural perfection? Start with acres of shimmering white marble. Add a few thousand semiprecious stones, carved and inlaid in intricate Islamic patterns. Take a sublime setting by a sacred river, in jewellike formal gardens. Apply a little perfect symmetry, and tie up the whole package in an outlandish story of timeless love. And there you have the Taj Mahal.

Built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj has been attracting travelers to India for centuries. Ironically, the emperor spent his final years incarcerated in Agra Fort by his ambitious son, with just a view of the Taj to remind him of everything he had lost.