A Woman's Journey Round The World, From Vienna To Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia, And Asia Minor By Ida Pfeiffer
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The First And Most Agreeable Thing After Our Long
Wandering, Was A Well-Furnished Table.
Such attentions are doubly
deserving of thanks, when it is remembered at what a great amount of
trouble they are procured.
It is necessary on such excursions to
take not only provisions and a cook, but also cooking utensils,
table-services, bed-linen, and servants, enough in short for a small
establishment. The train of baggage, which is always sent on before
on these occasions, resembles a small emigration party.
On the following morning we went on to Kotab-Minar, one of the
oldest and most beautiful buildings of the Patanas (from which
people the Affghans derive their origin). The most wonderful part
of this monument is the so-called "Giant's Column," a polygon with
twenty-seven sides or half-round corners, and five stories or
galleries, whose diameter at the basement is fifty-four feet, and
whose height is twenty-six feet. A winding staircase of 386 steps,
leads to the top. This building is said to belong to the thirteenth
century, and to have been built by Kotab-ud-dun. The column is of
red sandstone, and only the exterior is of white marble; decorations
and wonderful sculptures are wound in broad stripes around the
column; these are so finely and neatly chiselled as to resemble an
elegant lace pattern. Any description of the delicacy and effect of
this work would be far exceeded by the reality. The column is
fortunately as well preserved as if it had only been standing about
a hundred years.
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