TOMB OF ZOBIEDE. 
257 
miles. When looking down on these delightful gardens, amidst 
a country thus lying under the curse of nature, they seemed like 
the last parting smile, on a face haggard with famine, and stif¬ 
fening into death. 
The interior of the mausoleum consists of a single chamber, 
vaulted to the very top of the cone. Some fragments of its 
originally fine plaistering, coloured, and gilded decorations, still 
adhere to its sides. Two sarcophagi, of the most simple forms, 
but now in the saddest neglect, stand on the floor directly under 
the center of the cone. They do not appear of quite such 
ancient workmanship, as the spiral shell which shields them 
from the changes of the elements. The one which contains the 
relics of Zobiede, was pointed out to me ; the other, I was told, 
holds the body of a lady equally royally favoured, having been 
the beloved spouse of one of Haroun-al-Raschid’s immediate 
successors; and, not improbably, of Caliph Ameen, the only 
son of the celebrated queen by whose side she lies. When it is 
recollected that these two princesses must have been entombed 
here about a thousand years ago, and that Bagdad has undergone 
so many mutations from conquest and pillage, it is, perhaps, 
surprising that the sepulchre and its contents are not in a state, 
even nearer to decay. At some little distance from the royal 
monument, stands a small mosque with its enshrined grave, 
dedicated to the memory of the Sheik Maruf-Kerkhy. 
The high, and often abrupt undulations of the ground, all 
about this extensive burial tract, are very numerous, and have 
been produced, some by the low mounded ruins of fallen build¬ 
ings, and others by the broken embankments of once deep ca¬ 
nals. The remains of the latter are useful to the present day; 
for, notwithstanding their utterly neglected state, they serve to 
VOL. II. 
L L 
