"The view is really very fine," exclaimed the Lieutenant, on their way up, "of the city, the gardens, the river, the plain of Mesopotamia, and the Persian hills; and the minaret itself is worth a visit on its own account, having been standing since the year 1235, more than six hundred years. It is, moreover, not only the oldest but the highest of any minaret in Bagdad. It is lucky for us that although unbelievers are not allowed entrance to Turkish minarets in general, this one being partly in ruins, and being besides unattached to any mosque, is therefore open to us dogs of Gentiles."
The entrance was high up, as in most minarets. A ladder was placed against the wall, and our friends climbed up and scrambled into the doorway over their heads.
From the top of the minaret Bagdad looked like a level plain made of the flat roofs of the houses, honey-combed by narrow ditches—the ditches, of course, being actually the streets.
Out of this plain of flat roofs rose mountain heights and peaks of mosques and minarets, which glittered in the sun with their gaudy covering of tiles, generally either blue or green.
THE BRIDGE OF BOATS.
From their lofty position our travellers made out the fact that the town was divided into two parts, one on the eastern and one on the western bank of the Tigris. A certain freshness and beauty was given to the river by the mulberry and date-palm trees growing in the court-yards of many of the houses. The eastern and western portions of Bagdad were connected by a pretty bridge of boats. Up and down the course of the river groves and gardens follow the flow of its waters northward and southward. But away from it to the east and west trees disappear and deserts stretch out into trackless wastes.
Eastward of Bagdad are the old walls, now for the most part dismantled. Long ago the bricks of which this wall was built were given to the soldiers of the Caliph's army to eke out their pay, but the soldiers of to-day are more fairly treated.
Tom made a visit to the citadel and barracks, which were in exceptionally good order. The soldiers appeared very young-looking, but steady and enduring. They wore a blue Zouave uniform.
Their lunch hour approaching, after leaving the barracks Tom and Mr. Jollytarre now turned their steps in the direction of the house of their host.