Note 144 — Chapter IV · CITIES AND PEOPLES (A) THE SOUL OF THE CITY

Samarra exhibits, like the Imperial Fora of Rome and the ruins of Luxor, truly American proportions. The city stretches for 33 km. [20 miles] along the Tigris. The Balkuwara Palace, which the Caliph Mutawakil built for one of his sons, forms a square of 1250 m. [say, three-quarters of a mile] on each side. One of the giant mosques measures in plan 260 × 180 m. [858 × 594 ft.]. Schwarz, Die Abbasidenresidenz Samarra (1910); Herzfeld, Ausgrabungen von Samarra (1912). [Pataliputra, in the days of Chandragupta and Asoka, measured intra muros 10 miles × 2 miles (equal to Manhattan Island or London along the Thames from Greenwich to Richmond).—Tr.]