New Delhi (CNN) The Taj Mahal is India's most popular tourist attraction and its most recognizable architectural icon. To outsiders, the building is an emblem of India, an impossibly romantic structure that stands alongside Peru's Machu Picchu and China's Great Wall as a true wonder of the world. But within the country itself, a controversy is currently raging over the monument's place within Indian culture, after it was excluded from an official government tourism brochure. The recently published 32-page glossy booklet, the title of which translates as "Uttar Pradesh Tourism: Unlimited Possibilities," highlights numerous landmarks throughout the northern Indian state. Yet the Taj Mahal, famously built in the 17th century by Muslim Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, is conspicuous by its absence.A controversy is raging over the monument's place within Indian cultureCritics allege Hindu nationalists are trying to revise history
Indian Tourism Minister Alphons Kannanthanam has also dismissed the controversy, stating that the Taj Mahal was "_'s pride."