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Love has inspired some of the grandest and most unforgettable gestures throughout history. From majestic monuments like the Taj Mahal and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to heartfelt acts like Joe DiMaggio’s roses for Marilyn Monroe and Carl Sagan’s cosmic dedication, these timeless displays of devotion showcase the power and poetry of romance. Get ready to be swept away by some truly epic acts of passion and loyalty.
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00:00...was motivated by the love of King Nebuchadnezzar II for the Princess Amidas of Medea.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the epic acts of love
00:11that will make you want your SO to step up their dame.
00:14He brought the greatest architects from Persia, Afghanistan, to build the Taj Mahal.
00:22Number 10, the Arlov Diamond.
00:24Cue the spotlight for one of history's most glittering heartbreaks, the Arlov Diamond.
00:29Giving me gifts, alone, in a secluded cottage, which is completely inappropriate, you know.
00:37This legendary gem was Count Grigori Arlov's grand bid to win back Empress Catherine the Great.
00:43Arlov had helped her seize the throne, but by the time he presented the diamond, her heart had moved on.
00:49The coup was organized by Arlov with the help of his brothers and a guy called Grigori Potemkin,
00:54who we're going to come back to real soon.
00:56It was simple and bloodless.
00:58Dressed in a male uniform, Catherine rode out to meet army units lull to her.
01:02As they joined, more declared their loyalty until it was clear no one in Moscow stood against her.
01:06Still, he knew about her longing for this dazzling treasure and hoped it might tip the scales.
01:11Catherine responded with royal gratitude, gifting him the marble palace and ensuring his name lived on
01:16by christening the diamond and placing it atop the imperial scepter.
01:20Today, it still sparkles in the Russian crown jewels, a reminder that some romances live on through what they leave
01:26behind.
01:27I'm told you have other talents.
01:34Riding, drinking, gaming, fighting.
01:41Have I left anything out?
01:42Number 9. Queen Victoria's memorials to Prince Albert.
01:46Love that endures even beyond death is one of the most poignant expressions a heart can hold.
01:51The depths of the Queen's sorrow remain impenetrable.
01:55She has now restricted herself to a regime of such ferocious introspection that we are all at our wit's end.
02:03When Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria turned her grief into a national love letter,
02:09commissioning monuments that transformed heartbreak into art.
02:12The Albert Memorial in London stands as the centerpiece,
02:15but across the country, statues and memorials reflect a partnership built on intellect, respect, and devotion.
02:21It's so neo-gothic, and yet it incorporates a lot of classical elements.
02:33It's very Prince Albert.
02:34Victoria's gestures weren't just remembrance,
02:36they ensured the world never forgot the love that defined an era.
02:40Not to equate your latest situationship with a 21-year-old marriage,
02:43but if anything teaches us that there's no time frame or one right way to heal a broken heart, it's
02:49this.
02:49The household continues, at her instruction, to observe the rituals now so familiar to her,
02:56in a vain attempt to render vivid that which can never be revived.
03:02Number 8. Joe DiMaggio's Roses for Marilyn Monroe.
03:05After Marilyn's untimely death in 1962,
03:08DiMaggio started a ritual that feels straight out of old Hollywood.
03:12The prettiest catch of his career.
03:15Former baseball star Joe DiMaggio wed screen star Marilyn Monroe.
03:19For about 20 years, three times a week, six red roses arrived at her crypt,
03:24a silent tribute from the man who seemingly never stopped loving her.
03:27Their marriage was brief and often overshadowed by fame and jealousy,
03:31but Joe's loyalty never faded.
03:40He shielded her memory, arranged a private funeral,
03:43and when he felt like his gesture had become the center of a media circus, he ended it.
03:48DiMaggio never remarried, and his reported final words,
03:51I'll finally get to see Marilyn, still echo for anyone who believes in love that endures beyond the final curtain.
03:57Joe and I are going to Florida next week.
04:01So you're back together?
04:03Oh, we'll see.
04:05Number 7. Edward VIII's Abdication.
04:08When it comes to royal drama,
04:10few topped the seismic shock of King Edward VIII's abdication in 1936.
04:14But I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility
04:21and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do,
04:28without the help and support of the woman I love.
04:34Was it a scandalous dereliction of duty or the ultimate act of romantic rebellion?
04:38The answer depends on your taste for fairy tales.
04:41What's certain is that Edward gave up the world's most coveted crown for Wallis Simpson,
04:46the twice-divorced American who rewrote the royal rulebook.
04:49Wallis had been vilified by the royal family.
04:53She's American.
04:54She divorced Ernest Simpson.
04:56She's stolen a beloved king.
04:59She had become the most hated woman in the world.
05:02His radio address, broadcast to millions, was a mic-drop moment in royal history.
05:06Their 35-year marriage, lived out in stylish exile, became a legend in its own right.
05:12For some, Edward's story is a cautionary tale.
05:15For others, it's the gold standard for choosing love over legacy.
05:19This love for her has destroyed everything.
05:23It is love, Winston.
05:27Love.
05:29The greatest thing on Earth.
05:32Number 6, Carl Sagan's dedication in Cosmos.
05:35American astronomer and planetary scientist, Carl Sagan used his life's work to frame his love.
05:41A lot of the things we do are on automatic pilot, including passions and love for children and all of
05:49that.
05:49Maybe there's a little bit of stuff that isn't, and we prize it greatly.
05:54Cosmos opens with what may be one of the most romantic tributes in modern literature, with the line, quote,
06:00In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an
06:04epic with Annie.
06:06As if that isn't poetic enough, the pair actually fell in love while working on the golden record.
06:11Talking about Carl is one of my favorite things to do, thinking about him.
06:17I am the very lucky recipient of love for Carl from around the whole planet.
06:26In a 2010 interview on Radiolab, Andrian revealed that her feelings for Sagan were literally recorded in space,
06:32as her brainwaves were captured while she was thinking of him.
06:35But sure, that heart emoji you woke up to is cute too.
06:38And what I was thinking of in that hour, what the forager record contains,
06:43are the first eureka of a 27-year-old woman who believed in love,
06:50but who had not yet found it, finally discovering it for the first time.
06:56Number 5. Horace Grizzly's Repeated Escapes
06:59World War II set the stage for countless acts of heroism, but few are as romantic as Horace Grizzly's story.
07:05He escaped a Nazi POW camp over 200 times to be with Rosa Rochbach, the quarry director's daughter.
07:12He would remove the wooden bars on his cell window most nights,
07:16then crawl under the wire fence that went around the camp to go meet with Rosa Rochbach.
07:22Yes, not even barbed wire or guards could keep them apart.
07:25Horace risked everything to meet Rosa in secret, where she'd smuggle food, supplies, and news to help prisoners.
07:31Whenever he would sneak back into his prison cell every night after meeting with Rosa,
07:36he would bring food with him to give to his fellow prisoners of war.
07:40The stakes were sky high, especially since Rosa had to hide her Jewish identity.
07:45After the war, their love endured through letters until tragedy struck.
07:49Rosa died during childbirth.
07:51Horace lived to 91, leaving a legacy that shows love can inspire extraordinary courage even in the darkest times.
07:57Considering the number of times he did it, it is astounding that he never got caught.
08:02But, for Horace, love won every time.
08:06Number 4. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese.
08:10Words have a way of making love immortal, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese
08:15remain among the most enduring tributes ever written.
08:19Many people will know her by the sonnet, How Do I Love Thee, part of a sonnet sequence,
08:25Sonnets from the Portuguese, which she wrote to her husband Robert Browning before they were married
08:29and gave to him after their elopement.
08:34Composed in secret during her courtship with Robert Browning,
08:37these 44 poems trace her transformation from a recluse under her father's control
08:41to a woman renewed by love.
08:43What began as private musings evolved into words of deep devotion, including the famous Sonnet 43.
08:50Yet all these months, since first I read your poems, I've been haunted by you.
08:54And today, you are the center of my life.
08:57Though hesitant to publish them, she was encouraged by her husband,
09:01who reportedly likened her work to Shakespeare's.
09:03The collection became a bridge to a new life, one of love, freedom, and elopement,
09:08proving that sometimes the grandest gestures come from the heart and the pen.
09:12Elizabeth Barrett Browning, sonnets from the Portuguese.
09:15I think they're the most beautiful words ever written.
09:17Number 3. Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idole.
09:21Imagine waking up to a personal symphony, written and conducted just for you, echoing through your home.
09:35That was the case for Cosima Wagner on Christmas morning, 1870,
09:39when she awoke to a melody drifting up the stairs played by a small orchestra assembled by her husband.
09:44They played Siegfried Idole, a lush, intimate composition celebrating the birth of their son
09:49and woven with melodies from Wagner's opera in progress,
09:53plus a lullaby that nods to their journey as parents.
10:07For years, this symphony was their private treasure,
10:11a secret soundtrack of domestic bliss,
10:13until financial troubles forced Wagner to share it with the world.
10:17Still, that's a birthday surprise that leaves heart-shaped chocolates in the dust.
10:31Number 2. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
10:34Often hailed as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world,
10:37King Nebuchadnezzar II is said to have built this green paradise for his homesick queen, Amatis,
10:43who longed for the hills of her homeland.
10:44So, in order to cheer her up, her husband constructed an oasis in the middle of the desert,
10:49an artificial mountain of brick and stone covered in hundreds of trees and other plants.
10:53Their marriage may have started as a political alliance,
10:55but the gardens became a living love letter,
10:58overflowing with exotic plants,
11:00fragrant blooms,
11:01and tiered terraces that defied the desert heat.
11:04Ingenious irrigation systems,
11:06possibly chain pumps or Archimedes' screws,
11:09drew water from the Euphrates.
11:10Carved depictions of these gardens also adorn the walls of the palace,
11:13while extensive remains of irrigation equipment,
11:16including the 50-kilometer-long Joe and Aqueduct,
11:18have been uncovered around the Nineveh site.
11:20Historians still debate whether the gardens existed,
11:23or if they were even commissioned by Nebuchadnezzar or another king altogether.
11:27Still, the legend endures as a tale of an empire turned to beauty for love.
11:32We simply had the wrong place,
11:34the wrong king.
11:36He says it was a marvel for all peoples,
11:39a wonder of the world.
11:45Before we continue,
11:47check out this single from Sound Mojo's album Balance,
11:50classical music reimagined as rock, hard rock, and metal.
11:53Check out the full track and album below.
12:10Number 1. The Taj Mahal
12:12If there's one monument that captures the soul of eternal love,
12:16it's the Taj Mahal.
12:17Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built this marble masterpiece
12:20for his wife Mumtaz Mahal after her death and childbirth,
12:23spending over two decades on its creation.
12:26The emperor decides to build a tomb worthy of his queen,
12:30an earthly replica of paradise,
12:32to embody their perfect love
12:34and project the power of the Mughal Empire for all time.
12:38Every detail is a love letter in stone,
12:41from flawless symmetry to shimmering inlays.
12:43Even ancillary buildings that you see in the Taj complex
12:46are built absolutely symmetrically.
12:49The gardens are laid out in symmetrical ways,
12:52and a central flowing stream of water
12:56becomes the axis along which this symmetry is divided.
13:00The rectangular base dazzles from every angle,
13:03while the main gate acts like a bridal veil,
13:05slowly revealing the wonder within.
13:07Inside, an arch frames the glowing dome
13:09against the sky and river.
13:11By day and moonlight,
13:12its marble shifts from pink to white to gold,
13:15mirroring love's changing moods.
13:17It remains the ultimate romantic gesture,
13:19inviting dreamers worldwide.
13:21Oh, it is beautiful, your majesty.
13:23It's all white marble.
13:25All that beauty for the dead queen.
13:29How romantic.
13:30What's the most romantic gesture from history
13:32you've heard about?
13:33Let us know in the comments.
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