Vesuvius A.D. 79: The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum Book

Shah Jahan was descended from two great warriors, and had a brutal rise to power, killing his three brothers to ensure his place as the ruler--and his son killed his other son to do the same at the end of his life--imprisoning him for twelve years until he died. So a man with a brutal life from start to finish--but he was deeply in love with his wife. She traveled with him to battles and lived in difficult circumstances to stay near him. When she died he built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum to her memory, bankrupting his kingdom,b ut building something that has lasted 500 years. THe illustrations in the book are great--I also love dthe thumb ring--we need more of those produced now. It is written at a high rate--and covers alot of fairly violent material, so not exactly the stuff for kindergardeners. But a good cross cultural informative book.