DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15173#0140
122
GARDENS OF CABOOL.
CHAP. V.
stream yet waters the fragrant flowers of this ce-
metery, which is the great holiday resort of the
people of Cabool. In front of the grave, there is a
small but chaste mosque of marble ; and an inscrip-
tion upon it sets forth that it was built in the year
1640, by order of the Emperor Shah Jehan, after
defeating Mahommed Nuzur Khan in Balkh, and
Budukhshan, " that poor Mahommedans might
here offer up their prayers." It is pleasing to see
the tomb of so great a man as Baber honoured by
his posterity.
There is a noble prospect from the hill which
overlooks Baber's tomb, and a summer-house has
been erected upon it by Shah Zuman, from which
it may be admired. The Nawab and myself climbed
up to it, and seated ourselves. If my reader can
imagine a plain, about twenty miles in circum-
ference, laid out with gardens and fields in pleasing
irregularity, intersected by three rivulets, which
wind through it by a serpentine course, and wash
innumerable little forts and villages, he will have
before him one of the meadows of Cabool. To the
north lie the hills of Pughman, covered half way
down with snow, and separated from the eye by a
sheet of the richest verdure. On the other side,
the mountains, which are bleak and rocky, mark
the hunting preserves of the kings ; and the gardens
of this city, so celebrated for fruit, lie beneath, the
water being conducted to them with great ingenuity.
I do not wonder at the hearts of the people being
captivated with the landscape, and of Baber's ad-
GARDENS OF CABOOL.
CHAP. V.
stream yet waters the fragrant flowers of this ce-
metery, which is the great holiday resort of the
people of Cabool. In front of the grave, there is a
small but chaste mosque of marble ; and an inscrip-
tion upon it sets forth that it was built in the year
1640, by order of the Emperor Shah Jehan, after
defeating Mahommed Nuzur Khan in Balkh, and
Budukhshan, " that poor Mahommedans might
here offer up their prayers." It is pleasing to see
the tomb of so great a man as Baber honoured by
his posterity.
There is a noble prospect from the hill which
overlooks Baber's tomb, and a summer-house has
been erected upon it by Shah Zuman, from which
it may be admired. The Nawab and myself climbed
up to it, and seated ourselves. If my reader can
imagine a plain, about twenty miles in circum-
ference, laid out with gardens and fields in pleasing
irregularity, intersected by three rivulets, which
wind through it by a serpentine course, and wash
innumerable little forts and villages, he will have
before him one of the meadows of Cabool. To the
north lie the hills of Pughman, covered half way
down with snow, and separated from the eye by a
sheet of the richest verdure. On the other side,
the mountains, which are bleak and rocky, mark
the hunting preserves of the kings ; and the gardens
of this city, so celebrated for fruit, lie beneath, the
water being conducted to them with great ingenuity.
I do not wonder at the hearts of the people being
captivated with the landscape, and of Baber's ad-