it stands in
solemn silence on the banks of the Jumna, like an enchanted vision. It
seemed to grow in magnificent splendor before my eyes as I approached
it. The airy dome and the white marble pillars glittered in fabulous,
mystic beauty, and towered far above the gigantic cypress trees, which
stood in rows like sentinels around it. One enters the park in front of
the main building through a pillared archway of colossal dimensions,
built of red sand-stone and surmounted by twenty-six white cupolas. The
height of the arches is one hundred and forty feet.

[Illustration: TAJ-MAHAL.]

"Taj-Mahal is erected on a base of red sand-stone nine hundred and
sixty-four feet long and three hundred and twenty-nine feet wide, one
side of which is washed by the river Jumna, and on each of the four
corners is a tower of red sand-stone covered by a white marble kiosk.
Two mosques take up the east and west sides. From this ground rises a
fine terrace of white marble, three hundred and thirteen feet square, in
the center of which is the beautiful main building itself. At each angle
is an airy marble spire of exquisite style, surmounted by a noble cupola
resting on eight pillars. They are about one hundred and fifty feet
high, and a spiral stairway leads to the very top. The ground-plan of
Taj-Mahal forms a regular octangle. The four sides on which the
entrances are located are each about one hundred and thirty feet long,
and turn to the four cardinal points of the compass. The roof is seventy
feet above the base. Over each corner is a gorgeous spire, and over the
center towers a marble dome measuring seventy feet in diameter, and
rising to a height of one hundred and twenty feet. It is covered by a
gilt vault in the shape of a half-moon about two hundred and sixty feet
above the floor. All this is of the finest Jaypoor marble, carefully
polished, and still retaining its pure color.

"Notwithstanding the colossal size of Taj-Mahal, every part of it, from
the foundation to the dome, is adorned with artistically executed
designs, and the whole is as carefully wrought as the finest ebony
ornament. Thus the entire Koran is inscribed on it. Even to-day the
burial vault of the beautiful queen is filled with the fragrance of
roses, jasmines and sandal-wood. The graves of the empress and emperor
constitute sarcophagi of the purest marble, covered with elegant inlays
of agate, carnelians, lapis lazuli and other precious stones, and
surrounded by