The Seven Cities of Delhi
the site of this palace Bahadur Shah erected, about 1844, the Hira or Diamond Mahal, a small irregular pavilion; the water-channel in front of this was furnished with a number of fountains, and the edges were gracefully curved.
The Pearl Palace was of red sandstone, but was covered with polished whitewash (or else faced with marble), painted and gilded after the fashion of the Diwan Khas; it had five pierced windows towards the river. Above were two balconies, from which the emperor and his ladies could watch, secluded from the public gaze, the elephant combats, or troops passing in review, on the river-bed below. The hall was removed after the Mutiny, because it prevented the free circulation of air to the barracks, but why a portion of the unimportant Hira Mahal was left instead one cannot understand. On the garden side of the hall there used to be a marble bath, about twelve feet square and five deep, with four legs, all carved out of a single block of marble; it was brought from Makrana, in the Jodhpur State.
North of the Moti Mahal a small pavilion abuts on the three-storied Shah Burj, and beyond, in the corner of the castle, there used to be the Jahangir Garden and the quarters allotted to the princes and their families.
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