File:Mosque of the great Imambara of Nawab Asaf-ud-daula, Lucknow (U.P.). Between March and July 1803 British Library WD1300.jpg

Mosque of the great Imambara of Nawab Asaf-ud-daula, Lucknow (U.P.). Between March and July 1803

Pen-and-ink and wash on proof engraving, by Henry Salt (1780-1827), of the Mosque of the Great Imambara of Nawab Asaf-ud-daula at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, dated between March and July 1803. The Grand Mosque of the Bada Imambara complex of Lucknow was built in the eighteenth century. This drawing was the original for plate 7 'Mosque at Lucknow', of Henry Salt's 'Twenty Four Views in St. Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia and Egypt'. Viscount Valentia (George Annesley) wrote that it was "built of brick but is completely covered with so brilliant a chunam, that it is impossible to bear the lustre when the sun shines full upon it. The tops of the minarets and of the domes are gilt. It forms one side of a square. The other sides are composed of a palace, celebrated for a deep and wide well, the Imaunbarah ... and three light, fantastic gateways, with arches similar to those in the Mosque. In the centre is an Asiatic garden, divided into regular beds, by large walks of stone."