It is a very beautiful
mausoleum, built after the model of the Taj at Agra; with this
difference, that the external wall around the quadrangle of the Taj
is here, as it were, thrown back, and closed in upon the tomb. The
beautiful gateway at the entrance of the gardens of the Taj forms
each of the four sides of the tomb of Mansur Ali Khan, with all its
chaste beauty of design, proportion, and ornament.[4] The quadrangle
in which this mausoleum stands is about three hundred and fifty yards
square, surrounded by a stone wall, with handsome gateways, and
filled in the same manner as that of the Taj at Agra, with cisterns
and fruit-trees. Three kinds of stones are used--white marble, red
sandstone, and the fine white and flesh-coloured sandstone of Rupbas.
The dome is of white marble, and exactly of the same form as that of
the Taj; but it stands on a neck or base of sandstone with twelve
sides, and the marble is of a quality very inferior to that of the
Taj. It is of coarse dolomite, and has become a good deal discoloured
by time, so as to give it the appearance, which Bishop Heber noticed,
of _potted meat_.
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