Page:The Lucknow album 1874 by Darogha Ubbas Alli.djvu/61

 was erected, and whether it is or is not what is set forth, it is an ornament to one of the broadest and most fashionable streets in Lucknow. It has no especial historical associations connected with it.

To the right is the Dowlat Khana, the Palace of Nawab Ausuf-ood-dowlah ; it comprises many buildings which after the annexation were used by the British as ordnance and commissariat stores ; on the breaking out of the rebellion of 1857 they were abandoned.

Proceeding to the end of the grand street, a little beyond is seen the entrance to the — 

The entrance is on the left ; a huge archway guarded by two of the most frightful looking sphynxes imaginable ; within the enclosure is, " ," where lie the remains of Mohumed Ali Shah, King of Oudh, and grandfather of the present ex-King, Wajid Ali Shah ; the remains of Mohumed Ali Shah's mother lie by his side, the tombs of both are overshadowed by a canopy of velvet, fringed with gold and precious stones, the whole interior of the Imambara is crammed with gigantic chandeliers ; candelabra, in crystal, springs from the floor, to the height of twelve feet, branching out in all directions, pier-glasses ten feet high stand against the polished marble walls, the pavement, of porphyry and precious stones, is so highly polished that it is almost dangerous to tread upon it, floor, walls, pillars, all are glittering like glass and reflecting floods of light, so that the mind is bewildered in contemplating such an extraordinary scene surpassing, by far, the stories of the Arabian Nights, and leaving deep in the shade, any accounts of Oriental luxury or grandeur that have ever been recounted, or even