The Seven Cities of Delhi
filled with water, and stocked with fish; since 1857 no water has been allowed to stand in the moat. A glacis also has been formed, and has extinguished the green gardens which lined the moat and contrasted with the rose-red walls. The gates of the castle are the Lahore and Delhi Gates, the Water Gate (at the south-east corner), a small postern about the centre of the river-face, and the Salimgarh Gate, which opened on to the bridge leading into that fort. The moat was spanned by wooden drawbridges, and the present stone bridges were not constructed until 1811 —a fact which is recorded by an inscription over the gate leading into the barbican, in front of the Lahore Gate. This barbican, with the one in front of the Delhi Gate, was made by Aurangzeb, who objected to the clear view into the palace which the people could formerly obtain,whenever the gates were opened.
In front of the Lahore Gate there was a great square, in which those Hindu nobles, whose turn it was to mount guard, encamped during their twenty-four hours of duty, for they never cared to trust themselves within the walls. To the south of this square there was constructed the "Ellenborough Tank," about 1846. This tank, being of red sandstone, was called the "Lai Diggi," and was about five hundred feet
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