160 GARDENS OF THE DAL LAKE 



that of Lalla Rookh on the Manasbal. It is 

 built on a narrow point of land, its terraces 

 rising on three sides out of the water which forms 

 large canals on either hand. A pavilion shaded 

 by great chenars stands close down by the edge 

 of the lake. 



All round the sides of the Dal Lake there are 

 broken walls and terraces, the remains of early 

 Mughal gardens. Hazrat Bal, the village close 

 to the Nisim Bagh, stands on the site of one 

 of these. The large mosque, where the hair of 

 the Prophet is preserved, and specially venerated 

 once a year at a great mela, is built round the 

 principal garden-house. The narrow stone water- 

 course runs beneath it, and through the village 

 square, in the midst of which a beautifully carved 

 stone chabutra figures conspicuously and still 

 forms a convenient praying platform. The old 

 entrance can be seen in the long line of stone 

 steps leading down to the water, but the most 

 interesting feature at Hazrat Bal is the carved 

 stone fountains. 



In the early northern gardens, before the canals 

 were enlarged sufficiently to admit of the line of 

 fountain jets which afterwards became such a 

 characteristic, these shallow fountain basins were 



