13. The window tax was levied at varying rates from 1697 to 1851.
CHAPTER 67
The Old City of Delhi.
On the 21st we went on eight miles to the Kutb Minar, across the
range of sandstone hills, which rise to the height of about two
hundred feet, and run north and south. The rocks are for the most
part naked, but here and there the soil between them is covered with
_famished_ grass, and a few stunted shrubs; anything more
unprepossessing can hardly be conceived than the aspect of these
hills, which seem to serve no other purpose than to store up heat for
the people of the great city of Delhi. We passed through a cut in
this range of hills, made apparently by the stream of the river Jumna
at some remote period, and about one hundred yards wide at the
entrance. This cut is crossed by an enormous stone wall running north
and south, and intended to shut in the waters, and form a lake in the
opening beyond it. Along the brow of the precipice, overlooking the
northern end of the wall, is the stupendous fort of Tughlakabad,
built by the Emperor Tughlak the First[1] of the sandstones of the
range of hills on which it stands, cut into enormous square
blocks.
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