196 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
above the dome, forming an agreeable and striking 
contrast to the four stately pillars which, with a so- 
lemn but sublime grandeur, rear their polished shafts 
at the several corners of the quadrangle. They are 
composed entirely of white marble, and their spot- 
less surfaces, reflecting the vivid rays of a tropical 
sun, but at the same time subduing their intensity, 
exhibit a sober stateliness of effect only to be felt and 
understood by those who have witnessed it. These 
minars are about one hundred and fifty feet high, 
but considerably slighter than the Monument near 
London Bridge. 
The gardens which surround this marvellous work 
of art are beautifully laid out with plantations of 
vines and peach-trees, and from the centre of this ter- 
restrial paradise rises in all its prodigious magnificence 
the mausoleum of Mumtaza Zemani,* the once beau- 
tiful wife of the emperor, as that name implies. The 
ascent to it from the gardens is by a flight of solid 
marble steps, terminating in an extensive terrace. 
Crossing this terrace, you reach the door of the tomb, 
which is small and unimposing, presenting an humble 
contrast to the surrounding objects, as if to fore- 
warn the visiter that he is about to enter the me- 
lancholy repository of the dead. Upon entering this 
costly receptacle of regal dust, which was thought 
too peerless to mix with vulgar clay, reflections on 
the vanity of all earthly grandeur almost instantly 
absorb the mind, in spite of the splendours that 
everywhere attract and dazzle the astonished beholder. 
In the centre of the mausoleum stand the tombs of 
* This was a name given by Shan Jehan to his favourite 
Sultana Arjemund Banu. 
