GARDENS OF SHALIMAR. 
71 
fine structures, standing within large enclosures and 
encompassed by lofty walls, within which are baths, 
menageries, stables, and various other subsidiary 
buildings. In this quarter of the city are several 
handsome mosques, and here is the celebrated Musjid, 
where, in 1739, the sanguinary Persian conqueror 
Nadir Shah sat and witnessed the massacre of the 
unfortunate inhabitants. 
The gardens of Shalimar, made when the modern 
city was built, are said to have cost upwards of a 
hundred lacs of rupees, or above a million sterling. 
They were originally surrounded by a high brick 
wall, and occupied a space above a mile in circum- 
ference. They are now so completely in ruins that 
scarcely a vestige of their former magnificence remains. 
From the southern wall of these gardens, as far as 
the eye can reach, the champaign presents nothing 
but one vast surface covered with splendid ruins, the 
remnants of the former Indraprastha.* The whole plain 
is crowded with these magnificent remains. Mosques, 
mausoleums, palaces, observatories, pavilions, colleges, 
baths, seraglios, lie heaped in mighty confusion, 
showing, in the lapsing glories of their decay, what 
must have been the grandeur of that city which they 
contributed to adorn during the period of its strength 
and of its pride. Even Upper Egypt, so rich in 
memorials of former greatness, can exhibit nothing 
superior to the monumental relics that lie scatter- 
ed over the plains on which ancient Delhi originally 
stood. But though this once magnificent capital 
has passed away and is now little more than a me- 
* Indraprastha is the Sanscrit name of old Delhi. 
