Motijhil

Motijhil, the Pearl Lake, also called Company's Lake after the East India Company, is a horseshoe-shaped lake in Murshidabad, about 3 km south-east of the Hazarduari Palace. It was dug in an old bed of the Bhagirathi by Nawazish Muhammad Khan, son-in-law of Nawab Alivardi Khan, who built a palace called Sang-i-Dalan, the Stone Palace, at the bend of the lake, using black basalt pillars brought from the ruins of Gaur. Warren Hastings lived here from 1771 to 1773, and Robert Clive and John Shore also stayed here.

The ASI protects the lake and its buildings. Near the water stands the three-domed Kala Masjid of 1749–50, with corner minarets topped by kiosks and a Quran copied out by Nawazish himself. Enclosures east of the mosque hold the tombs of Nawazish, Ekram-ud-Daula, whom he adopted, Ekram's tutor and nurse and a general, while a ruined gateway he built stands beyond the western wall. The grave of Edward Keating, a boy who died in 1785, is also here.