es.) Carr Stephen (p. 67) gives the circumference
as 254 feet, and the height as about 80 feet.

26. Ala-ud-din's additions were never completed. The sack of Delhi by
Timur Lang (Tamerlane) took place in December 1398. The Delhi sacked
by him was the city known as Firozabad.

27. The glory of the mosque is . . . the great range of arches on the
western side, extending north and south for about 385 feet, and
consisting of three greater and eight smaller arches; the central one
22 feet wide, and 53 feet high; the larger side-arches, 24 feet 4
inches, and about the same height as the central arch; the smaller
arches, which are unfortunately much ruined, are about half these
dimensions.' The great arch 'has since been carefully restored by
Government under efficient superintendence, and is now as sound and
complete as when first erected. The two great side arches either were
never completed, or have fallen down in consequence of the false mode
of construction.' (Fergusson, _Hist. of I. and E. Archit._, ed. 1910,
vol. ii, pp. 203, 204). The centre arch bears an inscription dated in
A.H. 594, or A.D. 1198 (Thomas, _Chronicles_, p. 24).

28. Most of the description of the Iron Pillar in the text is
erroneous. The pillar has nothing to do with Prithi Raj, who was
slain by the Muhammadans in A.D. 1192 (A.H. 588). The earliest
inscription on it records the victories of a Raja Chandra, probably
Chandra-varman, chief of Pokharan in Rajputana in the fourth century
A.C. (_E.H.I._, 3rd ed., 1914, p. 290, note). The pillar is by no
means 'small' when its material is considered; on the contrary, it is
very large. That material is not 'bronze, or a metal which resembles
bronze', but is pure malleable iron, as proved by analysis. It has
been suggested that this pillar must have been formed by gradually
welding pieces together; if so, it has been done very skilfully,
since no marks of such welding are to be seen. . . . The famous iron
pillar at the Kutb, near Delhi, indicates an amount of skill in the
manipulation of a large mass of wrought iron which has been the
marvel of all who have endeavoured to account for it. It is not many
years since the production of such a pillar would have been an
impossibility in the largest foundries of the world, and even now
there are comparatively few where a similar mass of metal could be
tumed out. . . . The total weight must exceed six tons.' (V. Ball,
_Economic Geology of India_, pp. 338, 339.) The