Most Awesome Tombs: Adham Khan’s Tomb

Adham Khan’s life story is pretty complex, so we’ll just boil it down to this: his tomb is unique in Mughal architecture, with its octagonal design, because he betrayed a major political figure and that guy was a bit upset. It’s thought the octagonal design designates Adham and his mother as traitors, clearly illustrating that some people just can’t let go of a grudge.

Still, it’s a pretty impressive place, with lots of halls and beautiful design that people get lost in, usually literally: its local nickname is “the Labyrinth”. And it’s so beautiful that the British, on discovering this and showing their usual respect for the local culture, turned it into some dude’s house. The graves were pulled out so he could have a dining room, though we’re kind of surprised they didn’t just use the sarcophagus as a table or something. And if that doesn’t seem disrespectful enough, the British agreed with you: they later turned it into a post office. And they wondered why the Indians rebelled so often.

Most Awesome Tombs: The Taj Mahal

Back in 1631, the Shah Jahan’s third wife died in childbirth, and he was distraught. It wasn’t just going to be a tomb for his wife. It was going to be a tomb better than most places the royals were living in. It’s actually one of the most outstanding examples of Mughal architecture, and is so complex it has, we’re not kidding, its own waterworks. We’re not really sure what corpses need with all this fancy stuff, and it’s probably better not to ask.

It was essentially designed to be what the palace in Heaven looked like on Earth. Of course, like all things built out of grief and sincere devotion, it has become a tourist attraction. Yep, all of those pretty photos and postcards and things are basically taking photos of a cemetery. They’d better hope Shah Jahan never gets upset, or we’re going to have a lot of haunting on our hands.