CAPITAL OF THE CRIMEA. 
181 
romances, and which our theatres endeavour to chap. 
. . IV. 
represent ; consisting of chambers, galleries, — y — 
and passages, so intricate and irregular, that it 
is impossible to give any plan of them, or to 
imagine the purposes for which they were con- 
structed. Upon the whole, it is rather an 
insignificant building for the residence of a 
sovereign. A large hall, opening by means of 
arches to the gardens of the seraglio, and to 
different courts, receives several staircases, 
winding from different parts of the palace. 
Prom this hall a door conducted the Khan to a 
small mosque, for his private devotion, when he 
did not choose to appear in public. Ascending 
to the apartments, we found no resemblance to 
any thing European. The rooms are small, and 
surrounded by divans ; the windows concealed 
by wooden lattices, or, as they are called by the 
French, jalousies. Some of the windows look 
only from one room into another; but being 
intended perhaps rather for ornament than for 
utility, they consist of small casements placed 
in little oblong rows ; and are at the same time 
so filled with frame and lattice-work, that no one 
can see through them. In the windows of the 
best apartments we observed some painted glass. 
Several of the staircases, conducting from one 
set of rooms to another, are open to the air; 
hut the persons ascending or descending were 
N 1 
