23 4 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
“ The Cuttub Minar is really the finest tower I have 
ever seen, and must, when its spire was complete, 
have been still more beautiful. The remaining great 
arches of the principal mosque, with their granite 
pillars, covered with inscriptions in the florid Cufic 
character, are as fine in their way as any of the details 
of York Minster. In the front of the principal of these 
arches is a metal pillar, like that in Firoze Shah’s 
castle, near the walls of Delhi, and several other re- 
mains of a wall and temple, more ancient than the 
foundation of Cuttub, and which I should have thought 
striking, if they had not been in such a neighbourhood.” 
On the right of the metal pillar spoken of by Bishop 
Heber, as you face it from the tower, and only a short 
distance from it, is the large columnar fragment of 
which I have already spoken. It is stated to have 
been left in its present unfinished state by the projec- 
tors; but why has baffled conjecture. It is at the 
base nearly twice the circumference of the perfect 
tower, and has a winding passage, but without stairs, 
in the centre. It is not more than forty feet high, 
but, had it been completed, it would have been one of 
the greatest artificial wonders in the universe, next to 
the large pyramid in the vicinity of Grand Cairo. 
The exterior of the Cuttub Minar is fluted as high as 
the last story, the upper division being quite plain and 
composed entirely of marble. Though exposed to the 
storms of centuries, the shaft has suffered no percep- 
tible injury ; the minutest ornaments, and these are 
numerous and various, appear still as perfect as ever. 
In the centre of the Minar, there is a spiral staircase, 
which takes you to its summit, whence you behold one 
