. Indika. The country and the people of India and Ceylon . at, as a mere path-way into a court and a place of worship, they are probably with-out a parallel in modern times. The steps narrow as they ascend,the lowest being one hundred and forty-nine feet and ten incheslong. There are forty steps in all, each being eight inches high. This mosque, says Temple, built by the emperor Shah Jahan,... is probably the most beautiful mosque on a very large scalethat has ever been seen in the world. Its vast dimensions, swell-ing cupolas, and lofty arches; its spacious court-yard, arcades,gateway, cloist
. Indika. The country and the people of India and Ceylon . at, as a mere path-way into a court and a place of worship, they are probably with-out a parallel in modern times. The steps narrow as they ascend,the lowest being one hundred and forty-nine feet and ten incheslong. There are forty steps in all, each being eight inches high. This mosque, says Temple, built by the emperor Shah Jahan,... is probably the most beautiful mosque on a very large scalethat has ever been seen in the world. Its vast dimensions, swell-ing cupolas, and lofty arches; its spacious court-yard, arcades,gateway, cloisters, and flight of steps produce ultimately an im-posing effect. But even this is hardly perceived at first by thebeholder, because his admiration is so riveted by the grace ofits forms, the nicety of its proportions, the delicate adjustmentof its component parts, and the harmony of its coloring. Forthe material of this noble structure the marble lends its brightnessand the sandstone its finest red. * * India in 1880, pp. 40, 41. 3 > GO 8 c© > C d. THE JAMA IX THE MUTINY. 655 Here, as in many other mosques, special pains have been takenwith the gateways. They arc massive and imposing,and worthyof the mosque into which they introduce the Themain doors are sixteen feet high, and are of wood, covered withheavy brass, which is richly ornamented with arabesques. Thecourt is immense, three hundred and twenty-five feet square,and every part paved with stone. In the centre are a marblebasin and fountain. The mosque itself is two hundred and one feet long, and onehundred and twenty feet broad. It was built in the year thousand men wrought at it six years, in order to completeit. Its two minarets are one hundred and thirty feet their top the best view of Delhi is to be had. In a littlecorner of one of the outer corridors there are some relics, whichpious Mohammedans set great store by, such as a Quran in Cufic,from the seventh century
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