It seemed to be a sort of park, for trees showed high above its brazen wall.
The party waited, and almost at once the Captain came back with one of the hairy elephants and begged them to mount.
This they did.
It was a glorious ride.

The elephant at the Zoo--to ride on him is also glorious, but he goes such a very little way, and then he goes back again, which is always dull.

But this great hairy beast went on and on and on along streets and through squares and gardens.

It was a glorious city; almost everything was built of marble, red, or white, or black.
Every now and then the party crossed a bridge.
It was not till they had climbed to the hill which is the centre of the town that they saw that the whole city was divided into twenty circles, alternately land and water, and over each of the water circles were the bridges by which they had come.
And now they were in a great square.

A vast building filled up one side of it; it was overlaid with gold, and had a dome of silver.