The Commentary of Father Monserrate 2.3.4

2.3.4

He therefore summoned masons, smiths, contractors and workmen, and ordered them to build walls, defences and houses for the soldiers to live in—indeed a whole city—in the very place, close to the gate in the walls, where his camp was at that time pitched. He gave strict injunctions also that all provisions intended for the city should be intercepted by his cavalry, who occupied all roads to the town and especially one path which approached the city from behind and was so rough and precipitous that soldiers could scarcely climb it even on their hands and knees. Finally he captured the city and ordered it to be razed to the ground. Inside the city is to be seen a fragment of a huge iron gun which for some superstitious reason or other the heathen revere and worship. It is smeared with oil and coloured red. There is also a great palace, the home of the ancient kings, in which the governor of the province now lives. There is an excellently fortified citadel, and a half-finished royal tomb, which I suppose will never be completed ; but it is worth seeing for its architecture and huge size. It stands in the middle of a square platform, which is raised five cubits above the ground, is eighty feet wide at the top, and is everywhere surrounded below by arches and colonnades. The tomb itself, which is crowned by a dome, measures twenty feet across, forty feet from the floor-level to the base of the dome, and forty feet from that point to the top of the dome.