A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
At twelve coss from Agra, on this road, is the famous city of
_Futtipoor_, built by Akbar, and inclosed by a fair stone wall, still
quite fresh, having four great gates, some three English miles between
each. Within the walls, the whole extent of the city lies waste like a
desert and uninhabited, being very dangerous to pass through in the
night time. Much of the ground is now occupied as gardens, and much of
it is sown with _nill_, or different kinds of grain, so that, one could
hardly suppose he were in the middle of what was so lately a great and
populous city. Before the gate towards Agra, in a stony ascent near a
coss in length, are the ruins of an extensive suburb. At the S.W. gate,
for two English miles from the city, there are ruins of many fine
buildings; and on the left are many fine walled gardens, to the distance
of three miles from the city. At the entrance of the N.E. gate is a
goodly bazar, or market, all of stone, being a spacious straight-lined
and paved street, with handsome houses on both sides, half a mile long.
Close, within the gate is the king's serai, consisting of extensive
stone buildings, but much ruined. At the head of this street stands the
king's house, or Moholl, with much curious building; beyond which, on an
ascent, is the goodliest mosque in all the east. It has a flight of some
twenty-four or thirty steps to the gate, which is, in my opinion, one of
the loftiest and handsomest in the world, having a great number of
clustering pyramids on the top, very curiously disposed. The top of this
gate may be distinctly seen from the distance of eight or ten miles.
Within the gate, is a spacious court curiously paved with stone, about
six times the size of the exchange of London, with a fine covered walk
along the sides, more than twice as broad and double the height of those
in our London exchange, supported by numerous pillars all of one stone;
and all round about are entrances into numerous rooms, very ingeniously
contrived. Opposite the grand gate stands a fair and sumptuous tomb,
most artificially inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and inclosed by a stone
ballustrade curiously carved; the ceiling being curiously plastered and
painted. In this tomb is deposited the body of a _calender_, or
Mahometan devotee, at whose cost the whole of this splendid mosque was
built. Under the court-yard is a goodly tank of excellent water; none
other being to be had in the whole extent of the city, except brackish
and corroding, by the use of which so great a mortality was occasioned
among the inhabitants of this city, that Akbar left it before it was
quite finished, and removed his seat of empire to Agra, so that this
splendid city was built and ruined in the space of fifty or sixty years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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