In Princess Diana's footsteps, William and Kate visit Taj Mahal

Agra: Where Princess Diana went alone, her son Prince William visited the Taj Mahal with his wife Kate on Saturday, bringing the British royal couple's week-long South Asian tour to a poignant close.

William and Kate sat side by side on the same bench where his late mother was photographed on a solitary visit in 1992.

Kate wore a slimline white dress with a circular navy pattern while William braved intense afternoon heat in a blazer and open-neck shirt.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were rounding off a tour in which they met another glamorous young royal couple, the king and queen of Bhutan, and saw rhinos and elephants in a national park in Assam.

The final stop at the Taj Mahal was an emotional one for William, who was 15 when Diana died in a car crash in 1997. He has often spoken of how much he misses his mother, and that he thinks of her every day.

Diana`s solo visit to the 17th-century mausoleum - built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favourite wife - came to symbolise her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles.

The couple separated months later.

Three of the Taj Mahal`s four minarets were swathed in scaffolding for repairs. Still, images of William and Kate sitting before the onion-domed monument, its ivory coloured marble translucent in the afternoon sunshine, were striking.

It was raining earlier in the day when the couple flew out of Bhutan`s only international airport, a day after they trekked to a Buddhist monastery 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) up a mountain.

They landed in Agra in afternooon temperatures that reached 41 degrees Celsius (105.8F). Much of India is suffering a heatwave and severe drought after two years of failed monsoon rains.