232 
SCENES IN INDIA, 
are only two exceptions, and those are of a great 
width, so much so that one of them had former- 
ly a spacious aqueduct running along its whole 
extent. The modern city is built upon two rocky 
eminences, and occupies a considerable space ; it is 
divided into thirty-six compartments. The imperial 
palace is protected on three sides by a lofty wall, the 
fourth being open to the river. 
The most remarkable thing in this neighbourhood, 
abounding in magnificent ruins, is the well known 
Cuttub Minar* at old Delhi, nine miles south of the 
modern city. It is a magnificent tower, two hundred 
and forty-two feet high, and one hundred and forty- 
three feet in circumference at the base. The purpose 
for which it was erected is lost in the obscurity of 
ages, so that even conjecture is now almost silent 
upon the question. The great architectural beauty of 
this building, its amazing height and prodigious 
strength, the costliness of the materials used in its 
construction, and the richness and diversity of its de- 
corations, render it at this moment one of the most 
extraordinary edifices in a country remarkable for the 
number and beauty of its structures : — it is altogether 
perhaps the finest tower in existence. On the lower 
part of the column are quotations from the Koran. 
Where these quotations now appear, there are said 
to have been originally figures in bas-relief, illustra- 
tive of Hindoo mythology, which were transformed 
into Arabic characters by the ingenuity of Mussulman 
devotees. The tower, therefore, is supposed to have 
been a Hindoo work, embellished by the worshippers 
* See title-page. 
