OF THE OLD WORLD. 23 



colour as it exhibited when first laid on. The 

 wilful damage these relics of the past have sus- 

 tained is the more to be regretted, as the very art 

 of making this beautiful enamel has been forgotten. 

 The gray granite walls in the interior are beauti- 

 fully carved, and in some places the doorways and 

 ornamented niches are of highly-polished black 

 granite. 



The largest of the tombs will contain about 8,000 

 people, it being built in the shape of a square, 

 having a verandah with forty-eight arches all round. 

 Some of the pillars are carved out of single blocks 

 of granite ; and I noticed slabs with which the in- 

 terior is paved upwards of sixty feet in length. 

 Under the centre of the dome is the tomb itself, 

 hewn out of a solid piece of black granite, highly 

 polished as the finest marble, and covered with 

 beautifully carved arabesques, Persian inscriptions, 

 and verses from the Koran. 



At each corner of the building is a small arch- 

 way, and a circular staircase in the thickness of 

 the wall, leading to the tops of the minarets, from 

 the upper galleries of which the Moussins used to 

 call " the faithful " to prayer at five certain times 

 during the day. In capacious vaults below are 

 the tombs of the wives, favourite mistresses, and 

 children of the kings, also of black polished 

 marble, covered with inscriptions. Besides the 

 seven large tombs there are several smaller ones, 

 also numerous Mosques, Eedgahs, Shrines, Tanks. 



