Good morning, my millions of adoring faithful (okay, maybe not mine, but close enough...), and welcome to one of the world's most fascinating and beautiful buildings, the Taj Mahal! Now, did you realize that the Taj Mahal is actually a mausoleum??? That's right, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ordered it built after the death of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal way back in 1629. The entire complex, with its fountains, marble pathways, gardens, and the high domed marble tomb, was completed in 1643, and still stands today as a wonder to behold.

Now, you'll notice that it's just the bean label here -- no metal was allowed inside, for obvious security reasons. So to get along with everyone, the beans had to shed their label and send it in alone. (It was either that or raise a snit, but that wouldn't be polite, now would it? After all, the beans are promoting world peace, not world domination...)

Next, the beans stop off to visit the tomb of Akbar, who was Shah Jahan’s grandfather. Akbar's tomb overlooks the massive gardens, and has the following inscription on it's entry gate:

"Hail, blessed space happier than the garden of paradise!
Hail, lofty building higher than the divine throne.
A paradise, the garden of which has thousands of Rizwans as its servants,
The garden of which has thousands of paradises for its land.
The pen of the mason of the divine decree has written on its court;
These are the gardens of Eden, enter them to live forever."

Pretty cool, huh? Beats what the beans thought up for their grave:

"Here lies the black beans
Please smile as you pass.
They live life to the fullest,
'Til they ran out of gas."

See? Even in the afterlife, the beans intend on being funny...

Here the beans check out the extensive Persian gardens of the Taj. Each of the four quarters of the garden are sub-divided into sixteen flower beds by stone-paved raised pathways. In the center of the garden, halfway between the tomb and the gateway, you'll find a raised marble lotus tank. The tank has been arranged to perfectly reflect the Taj in its waters.

Coming from a garden as they do, the beans found this one to be incredibly stunning. And although they were sorry to see that there weren't any high-protein vegetables growing in it, I'm sure that they'll eventually get over it.

There's a legend that has circulated for years that Shah Jahan intended to build a second Taj Mahal, only this time in black marble on the other side of the river Yamuna. He'd then connect the two by a bridge, and use the all-black model as his own gravesite. Alas, there's only one Taj Mahal -- some say he just never got around to building 'His & Hers' mausoleums, while others think the story is just a work of fiction, but either way, the beans thought it was pretty cool to be buried in black marble. I suspect that you'd be the first ruler on the block to have one of those...

So there you go -- the bean's official visit to one of the true wonders of the world. And while the actual veggies were disappointed that their can wasn't allowed past the gate, they were happy to know that at least part of them got to see the Taj Mahal in person. If you're ever in the neighborhood, the beans highly recommend that you stop to check out the Taj Mahal for yourself -- just leave your can behind.