r the city and is covered with the purple
lotus blossom. Its width and extent make it a characteristic feature of
Mandalay. Roads run parallel with the walls and lead to the entrance of
the palace gardens, once very beautiful.

The palace is a square of twenty or more buildings, built of teak,
painted red, and covered originally with gold leaf. The roofs have
layers of upturned eaves, and the buildings are richly decorated with
colored ornamentation, while the worn gilding and faded reds are blended
in the peculiar shading which time alone can give. There are many
audience rooms, these usually furnished with elaborately decorated
thrones, as is also the audience room in the beautiful adjacent palace
of the Queen; her throne and the King's great throne in the principal
audience room under the lofty cupola (called pyathat, and termed by the
people the "Centre of the Universe") are especially imposing and rich in
decoration. On either side of this audience chamber are large audience
rooms; these were used for some time after the British occupation as a
church for the soldiers, and the Queen's palace was turned into a
resting place for the Upper Burma Club; now both the church and the club
have appropriate edifices of their own. Between two of the principal
rooms is a screen, utilized as a wall and panelled in glass, mosaic, and
mirrors, which is very effective and reminds one of the glass room in
the palace at Amber.

From the high hill at Mandalay, one may gain an excellent general view
of the many pagodas and monasteries in which the city abounds; for this
is verily the land of the pagoda. The most beautiful of all, called the
Incomparable, was destroyed by fire. One of great interest was built by
Mindon Min, and called the Kuthodau, or, more generally, the 450
Pagodas, but there are said to be seven hundred and twenty-nine cupolas
surrounding the great central pagoda, each containing an alabaster slab
upon which are engraved some texts of Buddha taken from the Pali Bible,
the King thinking thus to perpetuate them,--the whole surrounded by a
wall, in which are built two richly decorated gates.

[Illustration: _The Arakan Pagoda_]

[Illustration: _One of the four gateways to the 450 Pagodas_]

Situated very near the so-termed 450 Pagodas is a group of attractive
pagodas in carved wood and plaster of different designs. In the centre
is an unfinished marble pagoda, called Kyauk Taw Gyi, which contains
a huge attractive