Page:The Seven Cities of Delhi.djvu/92

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the sixteenth century. Then the road skirts a garden, on the walls of which are pavilions, decorated with encaustic tiling, and crosses the old Moghal Road, which ran through the gate of the Arab Sarai, and may be traced towards the north. The Arab Sarai was built by Akbar's mother, and is so called because it was the habitation of some three hundred Arabs, whom she may have brought back from Mecca.

The walled enclosure of Humayun's tomb has two entrances, one to the west, the other on the south; but the former is the principal one. It may be noted that the mosque, usual accompaniment of a tomb, is therefore absent. The mausoleum itself, while it cannot pretend to the delicate, ever-varying beauty of the tomb of Taj Mahal, at Agra, is yet no mean receptacle for the bones of a king, whose life was rather spent in war than in peace. It must be remembered that the country had hardly been settled, and that the fame of the "Great Mogul" had not then attracted European artists. The ground plan, a square with an irregular octagon at each corner, may have served as a model for the designer of "the Taj;" the general plan of that building differs only in having regular octagons at the corners. Of course, the material and workmanship there are magnificent, while here both are rough; but