“The Temple”

“As Theo wandered along the riverside, just after he passed under the Lakshman Jhula Bridge, he came to the Tera Manzil Temple, a magnificent thirteen-story structure dedicated to the worship of all the various Hindu gods and goddesses. He had to step as close to the Ganges as possible, and completely crane his neck, to take in the pinnacle of this wonderful edifice. The ground story comprised a series of closed-off pink rooms that looked like garages. Three tiers of latticed rectangular windows, separated at each level by a decorated persimmon-colored frieze, formed the next higher floors. Then came three progressively narrower stories (forming in outline something like the deck of a Mississippi River paddleboat), interspersed with pointed arches, and featuring copper-hued friezes. Four melon-painted pyramidal turrets, topped with vertebrated finials, rose from both the first and third of these levels, the latter of which ended in a tower. This ultimate tower of the temple consisted of six square platforms, all of which contained, on each side, the same pointed arches seen on the stories immediately below them. The turret atop the thirteenth level perfectly replicated those of the sixth and seventh stories.”