Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/256

 red stone, and situated in the centre of a spacious quadrangle, with a fountain, lined with stone. At the upper end of the area is a handsome mosque, built of red stone, and inlaid with white marble. This college is now uninhabited.

Modern Delhi has been built upon two rocky eminences; the one where the Jāma Masjid is situated, named Jujula Pahar; and the other called Bejula Pahar; from both of these you have a commanding view of the rest of the city.

THE JĀMA MASJID.

24th.—We visited this noble masjid,—the finest I have seen; no difficulty was made in allowing us to inspect it. "The gate of the house of God is always open :" not only literally, but also to converts.

"This mosque is situated about a quarter of a mile from the royal palace; the foundation of it was laid upon a rocky eminence, named Jujula Pahar, and has been scarped on purpose. The ascent to it is by a flight of stone steps, thirty-five in number, through a handsome gateway of red stone. The doors of this gateway are covered throughout with plates of wrought brass, which Mr. Bernier imagined to be copper. The terrace on which the mosque is situated is a square, of about fourteen hundred yards of red stone; in the centre is a fountain, lined with marble, for the purpose of performing the necessary ablutions previous to prayer.

"An arched colonnade of red stone surrounds the whole of the terrace, which is adorned with octagonal pavilions for sitting in. The mosque is of an oblong form, two hundred and sixty-one feet in length, surmounted by three magnificent domes of white marble, interspersed with black stripes, and flanked by two minarets of black marble and red stone alternately, rising to the height of an hundred and thirty feet. Each of these minarets has three projecting galleries of white marble, having their summits crowned with light octagonal pavilions of the same. The whole front of the building is faced with large slabs of beautiful white marble; and along the cornice are ten com-*