61 



The ruins of serais, mosques, mausoleums, and other magni- 

 ficent structures, commenced about three or four miles before 

 the entrance of the present city. Amidst the melancholy heaps* 

 the tomb of the emperor Humaioon, still in perfect preser- 

 vation, stands conspicuous; the obelisk of Cutbal Deen is 

 equally so, at a distance on the left. About a mile and a half 

 from the gate of the new city of Shah Jehanabad is the old fort, 

 standing in the midst of the ruins of the old city of Delhi ; it is a 

 most ponderous structure, and of great antiquity; but the excel- 

 lence of its masonry, notwithstanding its being totally neglected, 

 has in general withstood the ravages of time. From some circum- 

 stances, particularly the appearance of the only gate toward the 

 river Jumna, it seems to have been originally visited by its stream, 

 though the channel is now at least half a mile from it. The new 

 city called Shah Jehan-abad, from its founder Shah Jehan, is 

 about sixteen miles in circuit, and now occupies the space be- 

 tween the old city and the river, on whose bank it stands. Its 

 citadel is the imperial palace; the streets are broad and level, 

 mostly paved with brick, but the houses are low and mean. An 

 aqueduct occupies the centre of the principal streets, built by 

 the Ameer Ally Murdaen Khan, by which he brought water from 

 Kurnal to Delhi, a distance of seventy miles; the greater part is 

 now in ruins.. 



The ameers' palaces, though extremely spacious and elegantly 

 disposed within, make no figure from without, being all excluded 

 from observation by walls, and a dewry, or gateway, in which 

 there is room for an ample guard; and over it for the nobut-konna, 

 or band of music, which is one of the appendages of certain, ranks 



