Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 5.10.6

5.10.6

Resuming the walk along the main terrace, you see before you at a distance a large dome, in which is the sepulchre, and to the right and left of that dome on a lower surface you observe several garden walks covered with trees and many parterres full of flowers. When at the end of the principal walk or terrace, besides the dome that faces you, are discovered two large pavilions, one to the right, another to the left, both built with the same kind of stone, consequently of the same red colour as the first pavilion. These are spacious square edifices, the parts of which are raised over each other in the form of balconies and terraces; three arches leave openings which have the garden wall for a boundary, and you walk under these pavilions as if they were lofty and wide galleries. I shall not stop to speak of the interior ornaments of the two pavilions, because they scarcely differ in regard to the walls, ceiling, or pavement from the dome which I am going to describe. Between the end of the principal walk and this dome is an open and pretty large space, which I call a water-parterre, because the stones on which you walk, cut and figured in various forms, represent the borders of box in our parterres. From the middle of this space you have a good view of the building which contains the tomb, and which we are now to examine.