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Ilarnek
arose a caravan route, and the precious metals from the earth were
exchanged for other metals and rare cloths and jewels and books and
tools for artificers and all things of luxury that are known to the
people who dwell along the winding river Ai and beyond. So Sarnath
waxed mighty and learned and beautiful, and sent forth conquering
armies to subdue the neighboring cities; and in time there sate
upon a throne in Sarnath the kings of all the land of Mnar and of
many lands adjacent.
    The wonder of the world and the pride of all mankind was Sarnath
the magnificent. Of polished desert-quarried marble were its walls,
in height three hundred cubits and in breadth seventy-five, so that
chariots might pass each other as men drove them along the top. For
full five hundred stadia did they run, being open only on the side
toward the lake where a green stone sea-wall kept back the waves
that rose oddly once a year at the festival of the destroying of
Ib. In Sarnath were fifty streets from the lake to the gates of the
caravans, and fifty more intersecting them. With onyx were they
paved, save those whereon the horses and camels and elephants trod,
which were paved with granite. And the gates of Sarnath were as
many as the landward ends of the streets, each of bronze, and
flanked by the figures of lions and elephants carven from some
stone no longer known among men. The houses of Sarnath were of
glazed brick and chalcedony, each having its walled garden and
crystal lakelet. With strange art were they builded, for no other
city had houses like them; and travelers from Thraa and Ilarnek and
Kadatheron marveled at the shining domes wherewith they were
surmounted.
    But more marvelous still were the palaces and the temples, and
the gardens made by Zokkar the olden king. There were many palaces,
the last of which were mightier than any in Thraa or Ilarnek or
Kadatheron. So high were they that one within might sometimes fancy
himself beneath only the sky; yet when lighted with torches dipt in
the oil of Dother their walls showed vast paintings of kings and
armies, of a splendor at once inspiring and stupefying to the
beholder. Many were the pillars of the palaces, all of tinted
marble, and carven into designs of surpassing beauty. And in most
of the palaces the floors were mosaics of beryl and lapis lazuli
and sardonyx and carbuncle and other choice materials, so disposed
that the beholder might fancy himself walking over beds of the
rarest flowers. And there were likewise fountains, which cast
scented waters about in pleasing jets arranged with cunning art.
Outshining all others was the palace of the kings of Mnar and of
the lands adjacent. On a pair of golden crouching lions rested the
throne, many steps above the gleaming floor. And it was wrought of
one piece of ivory, though no man lives who knows whence so vast a
piece could have come. In that palace there were also many
galleries, and many amphitheaters where lions and men and elephants
battled at the pleasure of the kings. Sometimes the amphitheaters
were flooded with water conveyed from the lake in mighty aqueducts,
and then were enacted stirring sea-fights, or combats betwixt
swimmers and deadly marine things.
    Lofty and amazing were the seventeen tower-like temples of
Sarnath, fashioned of a bright multi-colored stone not known
elsewhere. A full thousand cubits high stood the greatest among
them, wherein the high-priests dwelt with a magnificence scarce
less than that of the kings. On the ground were halls as vast and
splendid as those of the palaces; where gathered throngs in worship
of Zo-Kalar and Tamash and Lobon, the chief gods of Sarnath, whose
incense-enveloped shrines were as the thrones of monarchs. Not like
the eikons of other gods were those of Zo-Kalar and Tamash and
Lobon. For so close to life were they that one might swear the
graceful bearded gods themselves sate on the ivory thrones. And up
unending steps of zircon was the tower-chamber, wherefrom