[3] The mausoleum was surrounded by a cypress garden which is said to have different species of flowering trees and plants collected by Tippu Sultan from Persia, Ottoman Turkey, Kabul and French Mauritius.

The present doors made of ebony and decorated with ivory were gifted by Lord Dalhousie[5][6][7] The Gumbaz is designed in the Islamic style, with a large rectangle shaped garden, having a path leading to the mausoleum.

The army camped on the grounds, and cut down many cypress trees in the garden surrounding the tomb of Hyder Ali, to be used as tent poles and fascines.

His painting shows Hyder Ali's tomb rising to the skies, but with a backdrop scene of British soldiers camping in the gardens.

British forces wearing red coats with axes, cutting down the cypress trees, directing Indian workers to carry away the wood, and generally disrupting the garden.

[11][15][16][17] Charles Gold describes the scene as The Sultan's garden... became a melancholy spectacle, devoted to the necessities of military service; and appeared for the first time as if it had suffered the ravages of the severest winter.

Robert Home, the official military artist the Madras Army led by Lord Cornwallis, sketched the Gumbaz (see Vintage Gallery above) and described it.

The garden was landscaped beautifully with designs which was a combination of several Asian traditions, and in its middle was the mausoleum of Tipu's father Hyder Ali.

But the axe of the enemy [the British] soon despoiled it of its beauties; and those trees, which once administered to the pleasures of their master, were compelled to furnish materials for the reduction of his capital.

Bayly I must relate the effects and appearance of a tremendous storm of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning that ensued on the afternoon of the burial of Tippoo Saib.

Suddenly, a rushing wind, with irresistible force, raised pyramids of sand to an amazing height, and swept most of the tents and marquees in frightful eddies far from their site.

Bullocks, elephants, and camels broke loose, and scampering in every direction over the plain; every hospital tent blown away, leaving the wounded exposed, unsheltered to the elemental strife.

The funeral party escorting Tippoo's body to the mausoleum of his ancestors situated in the Lal Bagh Garden, where the remains of his warlike father, Hyder Ali, had been deposited, were overtaken at the commencement of this furious whirlwind, and the soldiers ever after were impressed with a firm persuasion that his Satanic majesty attended in person at the funeral procession.

Rather than be exposed to such another scene, I would prefer the front of a hundred battles[11][26] In 1855, Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General of India visited Seringapatam on his way to the Nilgiris.

He then ordered that buildings to be renovated and maintained, as they not only provided memories for the war for the Deccan, and the exploits of the Duke of Wellington, but were also architecturally beautiful.

A minute to this effect was recorded by his staff, and a fund was established for the maintenance of these monuments at Seringapatam [28][29][30][31][32][33] The Persian epitaphs at the Gumbaz were studied by Benjamin Lewis Rice and appear in his work, Epigraphia Carnatica: Volume III: Inscriptions in the Mysore District (1894)[34] In the gardens of Lalbagh, next to the Gumbaz is located the memorial for William Baillie.

Col. Edward Montague of the Bengal Artillery, died 8 May 1799, 4 days after the final assault is buried near the Sangam, on the extreme east end of the island.