396 
at the entrance of the port, without the walls of the 
Seraglio. 
This kiosk, called Alai Kiosk, consists of a small 
square close house, surrounded with a large gallery, 
supported by marble columns, without any other in- 
closure than curtains of coarse cloth. I entered it with- 
out meeting any one. The floor was covered with 
carpets, the ceilings were adorned with pictures and 
gildings, and the Sultan's sofa was placed facing the 
sea. This sofa, mounted with solid silver, but quite 
plain, without any ornament or moulding, and as large 
as a great bed, was covered with a coarse mattrass, 
over which was spread a blue cloth; before the sofa was 
a marble fountain without water. 
I continued to observe from the shallop, the point of 
the seraglio, where there are several kiosks or belvi- 
deres, the greater part of which are covered with thick 
blinds, and appear to be the summer habitation of the 
Sultanas. These kiosks are each elevated upon a differ- 
ent plan, without any apparent symmetry. I remarked 
near one of these edifices,, some columns of beautiful 
marble. In the seraglio, at a short distance from the 
point, there is an ancient and magnificent column ap- 
parently about sixty-two feet high, but it is erected in 
a place so strictly prohibited to profane eyes, that I 
think it has never been described by any traveller. It 
was only at the period of the last attack of the English, 
that the Europeans penetrated into the interior for the 
establishment and service of tlje Spanish battery; a 
drawing of this monument was taken, which the Mar- 
quis Almenara was pleased to communicate to me.* 
The second time I embarked, I went to the front of 
* See Plate, 
