292 Brief notice of a stone bridge in Zillah K&mriip. [No. 4. 



The buttresses are all after the same model, those in the centre 

 measuring (at a level with the water and as near as I could ascertain 

 one layer from the foundation) about sixteen feet ten inches in breadth 

 by eight feet ten inches in thickness, tapering in regular layers of 

 masonry with rounded corners to 3 feet thick and 8 feet broad at top ; 

 on which is laid a slab of the same breadth supporting those of the 

 platform. The pillars spring from a base of very massive material 

 and measure at a line with the water twelve feet four inches in breadth 

 by 4 feet 4 inches in thickness, gradually diminishing in receding 

 layers to the height of 3 feet 4 inches, from which rises the abasement 

 of each pillar, the first stone being a squared block of 2^ feet, upon 

 which rests another block 2 feet square ; the average thickness of the 

 shaft ; the remaining portion of which is octagonal shaped. The two 

 first octagonal blocks have a large slab across them, and upon this rise 

 two, three and four blocks according to their size and the difference 

 in height towards the centre of the bridge, the upper one being formed 

 into a round capital, and over the whole is placed a slab similar to that 

 which covers the buttresses. The height at the centre of the bridge 

 by measurement with a line to the level of the water is nearly 20 feet, 

 there being a difference of 2 feet between this measurement and that 

 of the spring of the platform at each end. 



From the great care taken in the chiselling, squaring and fitting up 

 of the component parts of the whole, as well as the great size and weight, 

 the work is one of great strength and solidity. And this accounts for 

 the good state of preservation in which we find it in the present day : 

 for with the exception of the masonry of the abutments at each end, 

 in which large trees have taken root (one of them a tamarind tree the 

 stem 1 6 feet in circumference) and displaced the stones, the rest of the 

 structure may be said to be entire. From a fracture in one of the 

 pillars, I observed that the upper blocks were kept in their places, by 

 means of iron pins, firmly wedged into the lower ones ; four apparently 

 through the centre and one on each side of the square of the shaft, 

 and, although not visible, other portions of the work may be iron clamp- 

 ed ; the slabs of the platform were marked with clamping holes, and 

 on the edge of the outside slabs are three square holes (3 inches square) 

 which were no doubt intended for the wooden supports of a balustrade. 

 Several freize-carved blocks are also lying near the end abutments, 



