But it is not its size that makes this room imposing. Here, as
elsewhere in the palace, it is the decoration. Rising for three or
four feet from the floor is a band of colored Moorish tiles. All the
wall above is of stucco, molded in lacelike patterns and painted
in blues and reds and brilliant golden yellows. The designs are
largely geometrical or floral, frequently interspersed with Arabic
inscriptions. Some of these when translated read, "God is our refuge,"
"Praise be to God," familiar phrases in Mohammedan faith, or "There is
no conqueror but God." Add to this decoration of the walls imposing
stalactite domes, and ceilings often of cedarwood inlaid with mother of
pearl, and imagine the floors and windows again adorned with oriental
rugs and hangings, and the beauty of the Alhambra will be easily
understood.
[Illustration: HALL OF REPOSE OF THE BATHS, ALHAMBRA]
[Illustration: THE GATE OF JUSTICE
_A part of the Alhambra palace not well preserved._]
But neither the Court of the Myrtles nor the Hall of the Ambassadors
is the crowning glory of the palace. This honor belongs to the Court
of the Lions. One hundred and sixteen by sixty-six feet in size, this
court compares with any apartment in the world for pure, exquisite
beauty of design. An open portico, its ceiling borne on a hundred
and twenty-four slender and beautiful marble columns and delicately
ornamented arches, incloses the central space, in the middle of which
rises a magnificent fountain, its basin cut from a single giant block
of alabaster, and supported on the backs of twelve lions of white
marble, emblems of courage and strength.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE ALHAMBRA
_Arched window in the "Tower of the Captivity of Isabel."_]
It is small wonder that the last of the Moorish kings, Boabdil
(bo-ahb-deel´), looked back with many tears at this glorious palace as
he surrendered it in 1492 to his Christian conqueror Ferdinand. Sadly
indeed he and his followers must have crossed again to the dreary
deserts of Africa, since they left behind them the whole fair land of
Spain, which they had adorned not merely with the Alhambra, but with
the Alcázar at Seville, the mosque at Cordova, and other monuments of
their civil and religious greatness.