Ionic pillar.  The whole pyramid surpasses in size St. Paul’s church in London, the latter being only 474[11] feet long and 207 wide.  The roof of the pyramid has a copper casing covered with reliefs referring to mythical subjects; the gilding which was once on it is still visible.  In the middle of the courtyard there is a great tank, surrounded with a gallery of pillars and also an enclosure round it of marble, well polished and ornamented with sculptures and arabesques.  In the eastern part there is still another court surrounded with a wall, on the inside of which is a colonnade covered with large slabs of stone.  Here also there is a pagoda, which is but little inferior in size to the larger one; but it contains only large dark chambers covered with sculptures, which have reference to the worship of certain deities, particularly Vishnu.  The interior ornaments are in harmony with the whole; from the nave of one of the pyramids there hang, on the tops of four buttresses, festoons of chains, in length altogether 548 feet, made of stone.  Each garland, consisting of twenty links, is made of one piece of stone 60 feet long; the links themselves are monstrous rings 32 inches in circumference, and polished as smooth as glass.  One chain is broken, and hangs down from the pillar.  In the neighbourhood of the pagodas there are usually tanks and basins lined with cement, or buildings attached for the purpose of lodging pilgrims who come from a distance.  It is, however, often the case that the adjoining buildings, as well as the external ornaments in general, are in bad taste, and the work of a later age than the pagoda itself.

    [9] The outer wall is brick cased with stone:  the inner is all
    of stone.  The four sides are turned respectively to the four
    cardinal points,—­Heeren, India, p. 74.

    [10] Fifty meilen.

    [11] These dimensions are not exact, even making allowance for
    Berlin feet.

The pyramidical entrances of the Indian pagodas are analogous to the Egyptian propyla, while the large pillared rooms which support a flat roof of stone, are found frequently in the temples of both countries.  Among the numerous divisions of the excavations of Ellora, there is an upper story of the Dasavatara, or the temple of Vishnu’s incarnations, the roof of which is supported by sixty-four square based pillars, eight in each row.  This chamber is about 100 feet wide, and somewhat deeper, and as to general design may be compared with the excavated chambers of Egypt, which are supported by square columns.  The massy materials, the dark chambers, and the walls covered with highly wrought sculptures; and the tanks near the temples, with their enclosure of stone, and the steps for the pilgrims, are also equally characteristic of a pagoda and an Egyptian temple.  To this we may add the high thick wall, of a rectangular form, carried all round the sacred spot:  it is, however, principally the massy structure of these surrounding