Page:The Seven Cities of Delhi.djvu/147

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

been preparations made for a tomb; this was to have been similar to one at the other corner, which contains the bones of a great minister of Tughlak Shah, and Is crowned by a marble dome. The underground apartments are approached from the arcades.

The kings tomb (see p. 193) is within the enclosure. Is massive and plain, but yet effective, with panels and a band of marble to break the monotony of the red sides. The marble facing of the dome was probably the first to be attempted, and is therefore not particularly well fitted. The chief feature of the exterior Is the tremendous "batter," or slope of the walls, a feature which is absent in the earlier tomb of Altamsh, or the Alai Gateway, but is characteristic of buildings of this period. Its introduction may have been due to experience of earthquakes. These walls are over eleven feet in thickness at the base and only four feet thick at the top. The interior Is plain. Above the pendentives to the dome, which are generally similar to those of the Alai Gate, are lozenge-shaped stones instead of brackets to support the upper course of the development of the circle, thirty-four feet in diameter.

There are three graves inside—those of the founder, his wife, and son Mahomed ibn Tughlak : in the grave of the latter were placed a number