Felice Beato was a British photographer of Italian origin. He travelled through India after the so-called ‘mutiny’ or uprising of the Indian army against their British officers in 1857. Beato took photographs of sites associated with the uprising, as well as more general photographs of the most important monuments of the cities he visited, as in this example.

The photograph shows the tomb of Mirza Muqim Abduíl Mansur Khan, known as Safdar Jang, who served as wazir or vizier of Oudh from 1739 to 1754 for the Mughal emperor Ahmad Shah. According to an inscription over the eastern entrance, the tomb was built in 1753–1754 by Safdar Jang’s son, Nawab Shujaíuíd-Daula.

The mausoleum consists of a platform with a series of arches. Through these are the graves of Safdar Jang and his wife. On the platform is a two-storey structure measuring 18.28 square metres inside and comprising a central chamber of 7 square metres surrounded by eight other enclosures. This layout is repeated on the second storey. The entire tomb is made of red and buff-coloured stone. The façade is dominated by a large cusped arch surrounded by four smaller cusped arches. The dome is a triple dome rising from a 16-sided red sandstone drum.