In 1612, Mumtaz Mahal was married to Shah Jehan (then Prince Khurram), the fifth Mughal emperor of India. This marriage, although the emperor's second, was a real love-match, and Mumtaz was her husband's inseparable companion on all his journeys and military expeditions. She was his comrade, his counsellor, and inspired him to acts of charity and benevolence towards the weak and the needy. She bore him fourteen children, and died in childbed in 1630 (only three years after his accession to the throne).  Overpowered by grief, Shah Jehan was determined to perpetuate her memory for immortality and decided to build his beloved wife the finest sepulchre ever - a monument of eternal love.  After twenty-two laborious years, and the combined effort of over twenty thousand workmen and master craftsmen, the complex was finally completed in 1648 on the banks on the river Yamuna in Agra, the capital of the Mughal monarchs.  The Taj Mahal is constructed primarily of white marble, with thousands of inlaid semi-precious stones intricately worked into it.  In keeping with Muslim tradition, there are no representations of Mumtaz inside (or anyone else, for that matter), but beautiful Islamic calligraphic carvings and geometric patterns festoon the ediface.