as to what the original form of the top of the minar was ; there has been mention of a harp-like ornament, which one drawing seems to confirm, but this looks rather like a fanciful impression of the artist in water-colour. Major Smith, as we have seen, claimed that he had restored, rather than re-designed, the top. But it seems most probable (and a view in Daniell's "Oriental Scenery" confirms this) that there was a simple lantern and cupola, with four, or more, windows. The architecture of the period of Firoze Shah, or that of Sikandar Lodi, does not suggest anything more ambitious than this, although it is not impossible that a pavilion of Hindu design surmounted the tower, when it was at first constructed. The memory of the oldest inhabitant, at the time of Major Smith's repairs, could not, however, have extended so far back as this.
The minar is some 238 feet high, 47 feet In diameter at the bottom, and 9 feet only at the top. It is divided into five stories by four balconies, the undersides of which are most beautifully carved in a design which recalls the stalactite " stucco arches at the Alhambra in Granada. The red sandstone balustrades were substituted by Major Smith for the battlements which once encircled each balcony. The first story is 95 feet high, with alternate semicircular and angular
