44 GARDENS OF THE PLAINS AGRA 



lies the Zuhara Bagh, another large walled 

 enclosure. This formerly contained the largest 

 garden-palace at Agra, and belonged to Zuhara, 

 one of Babar's daughters. A great well outside 

 the enclosure, some 220 feet in circumference, 

 has recently been filled up ; and altogether the 

 garden is said to have possessed no less than 

 sixty wells. 



Five and a half miles from Agra, down the 

 great north road of Babar's planning, lies Sikan- 

 drah, the tomb of his grandson Akbar. The 

 building stands in the midst of a vast level 

 garden, a char-bagh of the plains. The gardens 

 mentioned so far, those of Babar's descriptions 

 and the garden of Mahun, were all constructed 

 in a series of terraces on sloping ground on the 

 usual Turki and Persian plan. The ideal pleas- 

 ance, according to those traditions, was itself a 

 symbol of life, death, and eternity, and should 

 be divided into eight terraces, following the eight 

 divisions of the Paradise of the Koran mentioned 

 in the previous chapter. In other cases seven 

 was the number chosen, to symbolise the seven 

 planets, and the ground plan of every garden was 

 designed in accordance with some symbolic or 

 mystic idea. No wonder, then, that Babar was 



