The Pearl Mosque of Agra, India

1878

A traveler in India describes one of the architectural wonders of the country as follows:

The Pearl Mosque of Agra stands inside the fort, and its three domes rise above the crenelated wall so as to be visible at considerable distances. They have been compared to bubbles, which have rested there for a moment and were liable to be blown away by the first breath of wind, and certainly the comparison is not inapt.

Domes, roofs, walls, pillars, floors, and all are of white marble, and the whole work is finished as carefully as if intended for observation under a microscope. It is not a closed building, like the mosques familiar to visitors to Constantinople. One side is quite open to a large quadrangle, and as you stand in the latter, with the sun of India beating down upon you, your eyes can penetrate to the depths of all the arches that support the domes and roof.

Never, before have I seen a more perfect specimen of the Saracenic arch, and as the arches cut each other at right angles the perspective from any given point is absolutely bewildering. There are twenty four intersecting arches and groined vaults; the structure surprises you at first by its plainness, and then by the splendor of its effect. You cannot understand why it has so captivated you, and I think that many visitors to the Pearl Mosque have gone away with a higher appreciation of Saracenic architecture than ever before.

There is nothing of decoration or ornament about it; nothing but the purest Saracenic art, whether in the mosque itself or in the cloister-surrounded quadrangle. There is no trickery of many-colored stones or elaborate work in mosaic; you see only the pure marble beneath, around, and before you and the blue sky above. As a triumph of architecture it is complete.