Taj Mahal Marathon marathon is also India's longest in terms of the distance. The Taj Mahal Marathon is not the first long-distance running event held in the city, which starts around Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal Marathon was organized by Adventure Marathon in 2008 and was discontinued thereafter. It was a 42.195 km long marathon. The course started in a small village of Niyamatpur and winded through the countryside before joining the main highway to the city of Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Set over a largely flat course along the Chambal River from River Yamuna, and spanning 222 kilometres (138 miles), The
Taj Mahal mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643 but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2015 would be approximately 52.8 billion rupees (U.S. $827 million). The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being