Allahabad

Allahabad (the City of God), also known as Akbarabad, a city in the N.W. Provinces of India, which gives its name also to a division and a district, of both of which it is the capital. Situated at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna rivers, 550 miles from Calcutta, Allahabad has, from earliest times, been of great strategical and commercifd importance, besides holding the highest place in the veneration of the Hindus, many thousands of whom come yearly to bathe in the holy waters. Now that the railway systems of Eastern and Western India converge to this point the city has immensely increased in population and consequence. The fortress commanding the junction of the rivers was founded by Akbar, in 1583, taken by the British in 1765, restored to the Nabob of Oude in 1771, and finally ceded to England in 1807. It is two miles distant from the city, and contains the remains of a fine palace built by Akbar. Other noteworthy monuments are the Great Mosque and the Caravanserai of the Sultan Khossore. The district of Allahabad is 85 miles long by 50 broad, with an area of 2,833 square miles, and a population of about a million and a half. It is well watered and luxuriantly productive.