[p.330] and geographers often state. Its dimensions are much smaller than those of the mosque at Mekka, being a hundred and sixty-five paces in length, and a hundred and thirty in breadth; but it is built much upon the same plan, forming an open square, surrounded on all sides by covered colonnades, with a small building in the centre of the square. [The representations of this mosque, given both by Niebuhr and D’Ohhson, are very incorrect, being copied, probably, from old Arab drawings. I had intended to make a correct plan of it, but was prevented by my illness; and I should not wish to add one from mere recollection. Samhoudy states its dimensions as quite different, and says that it is two hundred and forty pikes in length, one hundred and sixty-five pikes in breadth on the S. side, and one hundred and thirty on the N. side. He adds that there are two hundred and ninety-six columns. I am not quite sure whether the building has been materially changed since his time, and after the fire in A.H. 886; but I believe not, and regard his account as much exaggerated.] These colonnades are much less regular than those at Mekka, where the rows of pillars stand at much the same depth on all sides. On the south side of this mosque, the colonnade is composed of ten rows of pillars behind each other; and on the west side are four rows; on the north, and part of the east side, only three rows. The columns themselves are of different sizes. On the south side, which contains the Prophet’s tomb, and which forms the most holy part of the building, they are of larger dimensions than in the other parts, and about two feet and a half in diameter. They have no pediments, the shafts touching the ground; and the same diversity and bad taste are as conspicuous in the capitals here as in the mosque at Mekka, no two being alike. The columns are of stone, but, being all plastered white, it is difficult to decide of what species. To the height of about six feet from the ground they are painted with flowers and arabesques, in a coarse and gaudy style; by which means, probably, it was intended to remedy the want of pediments. Those standing nearest to that part of the southern colonnade called El Rodha, are cased for half their height with bright glazed green tiles or slates, decorated with arabesques of various colours: the tiles seem to be of Venetian pottery, and are of the same kind as those used to cover stoves in Germany and Switzerland.