Recent excavations have proved the truth of the conjecture that the two mounds at Shahji ki dheri covered the remains of these buildings, and the six-sided crystal reliquary containing three small fragments of bone has after long centuries been disinterred and is now in the great pagoda at Rangoon. In the Lahore museum there is a rich collection of the sculptures recovered from the Peshawar Valley, the ancient Gandhara. They exhibit strong traces of Greek influence. The best age of Gandhara sculpture was probably over before the reign of Kanishka. The site of the famous town of Taxila is now a protected area, and excavation there may yield a rich reward. [Illustration: Fig. 74. Payer Temple.] [Illustration: Fig. 75. Reliquary.] [Illustration: Fig. 76. Colonnade in Kuwwat ul Islam Mosque.] ~Muhammadan Architecture.~--The Muhammadan architecture of North-Western India may be divided into three periods: (_a_) The Pathan 1191-1320 (_b_) The Tughlak 1320-1556 (_c_) The Moghal 1556-1753 [Illustration: Fig. 77. Kutb Minar.] In the Pathan period the royal builders drew their inspiration from Ghazni, but their work was also much affected by Hindu influences for two reasons. They used the materials of Hindu temples in constructing their mosques and they employed masons imbued with the traditions of Hindu art. The best specimens of this period are to be found in the group of buildings in Old Delhi or _Kila' Rai Pithora_, close to Mahrauli and eleven miles to the south of the present city. These buildings are the magnificent _Kuwwat ul Islam_ (Might of Islam) Mosque (1191-1225), with its splendid tower, the _Kutb Minar_ (1200-1220), from which the _mu'azzin_ called the faithful to prayer, the tomb of the Emperor Altamsh (1238), and the great gateway built in 1310 by Ala ud din Khalji. In the second period, named after the house that occupied the imperial throne when it began, all traces of Hindu influence have vanished, and the buildings display the austere and massive grandeur suited to the faith of the desert prophet unalloyed by foreign elements. This style in its beginning is best seen in the cyclopean ruins of Tughlakabad and the tomb of the Emperor Tughlak Shah, and in some mosques in and near Delhi. Its latest phase is represented by Sher Shah's mosque in the Old Fort or _Purana Kila'_. To some the simple grandeur of this style will appeal more strongly than the splendid, but at times almost effeminate, beauty of the third period. Noted examples of Moghal architecture in the Panjab are to be found in Shahjahari's red fort palace and _Jama' Masjid_ at New Delhi or Shahjahanabad, Humayun's tomb on the road from Delhi to Mahrauli, the fort palace, the Badshahi and Wazir Khan's mosques, at Lahore, and Jahangir's mausoleum at Shahdara. A very late building in this style is the tomb of Nawab Safdar Jang (1753) near Delhi. A further account of some of the most famous Muhammadan buildings will be found in the paragraphs devoted to