It Is Situated On The Banks Of The Jumna, With A Fine View Of The
Magnificent Fort, With Its Mosque
And minarets, and is entirely of
pure white marble, inlaid with stones into shapes of flowers and
arabesques, &c. At
Each corner rises a white marble minaret, like a
pillar of snow, beautifully decorated and carved, but unsullied by a
single line of any other colour whatever. The interior is profusely
inlaid with minute stones of considerable value, and is lit by carved
marble windows of the most beautiful design imaginable. In the centre,
surrounding the tomb of Mumtaz and her lord, is a marvellous white
marble screen, in the form of a polygon, carved like perforated ivory,
and also inlaid with minute stones of every shape and colour.[34]
The queen, in whose honour the tomb was built, occupies the very
centre of the enclosure, Shah Jehan's tomb being on one side of it,
and larger in size, which rather spoils the symmetry of the space.
Exactly underneath the tombs, in the main body of the building,
one descends to a marble vault, where there are two others precisely
similar in shape, but without any inscription or ornament whatever,
and under these latter the mortal remains of the famous Shah Jehan
and Mumtaz repose in peace. Over the queen's tomb, in the very centre
of the interior, a single ostrich egg was suspended by an almost
invisible thread, probably to shadow forth something of the meaning
of the "Resurgam" affixed to monuments elsewhere.
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