The Alhambra by Esther Singleton

THÉOPHILE GAUTIER.

Having passed through the gate, you enter a large square called _Plaza / de las Algives_ in the centre of which you find a well whose curb is / surrounded by a kind of wooden shed covered with spartium matting and / where, for a _cuarto_, you can have a glass of water, as clear as a / diamond, as cold as ice, and of the most delicious flavour. The towers / of Quebrada, the Homenaga, the Armeria, and of the Vela, whose bell / announces the hours when the water is distributed, and stone-parapets, / on which you can lean to admire the marvellous view which unfolds / before you, surround one side of the square; the other is occupied / by the Palace of Charles V., an immense building of the Renaissance, / which you would admire anywhere else, but which you curse here when / you remember that it covers a space once occupied by a portion of the / Alhambra which was pulled down to make room for this heavy mass. This / Alcazar was, however, designed by Alonzo Berruguete; the trophies, the / bas-reliefs, and the medallions of its facade have been accumulated by / means of a proud, bold, and patient chisel; the circular court with its / marble columns, where, in all probability, the bull-fights took place, / is certainly a magnificent piece of architecture, but _non erat hic / locus_.

You enter the Alhambra through a corridor situated in an angle of the / Palace of Charles V., and, after several windings, you arrive in a / large court, designated indifferently under the names of _Patio de los / Arraynes_ (Court of Myrtles), of the _Alberca_ (of the Reservoir), or / of the _Mezouar_ (an Arabian word signifying bath for women).

When you issue from these dark passages into this large space flooded / with light, the effect is similar to that produced by a diorama. You / can almost fancy that an enchanter's wand has transported you to the / Orient of four or five centuries ago. Time, which changes everything / in its flight, has altered nothing here, where the apparition of the / Sultana _Chaîne des cœurs_ and of the Moor _Tarfe_ in his white cloak / would not cause the least surprise.

The antechamber of the Hall of the Ambassadors is worthy of the purpose / for which it was intended: the boldness of its arches, the variety and / interlacing of its arabesques, the mosaics of its walls, and the work / on its stuccoed ceiling, crowded like the stalactite roof of a grotto / and painted with azure, green, and red, traces of which colours are / still visible, produce an effect both charming and bizarre.

On each side of the door which leads to the Hall of the Ambassadors, / in the jamb of the arch itself and where the facing of glazed tiles, / whose triangles of glaring colours adorn the lower portion of the / walls, are hollowed out, like little chapels, two niches of white / marble sculptured with an extreme delicacy. It was here that the / ancient Moors left their Turkish slippers before entering, as a mark / of deference, just as we remove our hats in places that demand this / respect.

The Hall of the Ambassadors, one of the largest in the Alhambra, fills / the whole interior of the tower of Comares. The ceiling, composed of / cedar, shows those mathematical combinations so common to the Arabian / architect: all the bits are arranged in such a way that all their / converging or diverging angles form an infinite variety of designs; the / walls disappear under a network of ornaments, so packed together and / so inextricably interwoven that I can think of no better comparison / than pieces of lace placed one above the other. Gothic architecture, / with its stone lace-work and its perforated roses, cannot compare with / this. Fish-slices and the paper embroidery cut out with a punch, which / the confectioners use to decorate their sweets, can alone give you any / idea of it. One of the characteristics of the Moorish style is that / it offers very few projections and profiles. All the ornamentation is / developed on flat surfaces and is hardly ever more than four or five / inches in relief; it is really like a kind of tapestry worked on the / wall itself. One feature in particular distinguishes it -- the employment / of writing as a motive of decoration; it is true that Arabian letters, / with their mysteriously winding forms, lend themselves remarkably to / this use. The inscriptions, which are almost always _suras_ of the / Koran, or eulogies to various princes who have built and decorated / these halls, unfold upon the friezes, on the jambs of the doors, and / round the arches of the windows interspersed with flowers, boughs, / network, and all the wealth of Arabian calligraphy. Those in the / Halls of the Ambassadors signify "Glory to God, power and wealth to / believers," or consist of praises to Abu Nazar, who, "if he had been / taken into Heaven while living, would have diminished the brightness of / the stars and planets," a hyperbolical assertion which seems to us a / little too Oriental.

Other bands are filled with eulogies to Abu Abd Allah, another Sultan / who ordered work upon this part of the Palace. The windows are / bedizened with verses in honour of the limpid waters of the reservoir, / of the freshness of the shrubbery, and the perfume of the flowers which / ornament the Court of the _Mezouar_, which in fact is seen, from the / Hall of the Ambassadors through the doors and little columns of the / gallery.

The loop-holes of the interior balcony, pierced at a great height from / the ground, and the ceiling of woodwork, devoid of ornaments except the / zig-zags and the interlacings formed by the joining of the pieces, give / the Hall of the Ambassadors a more severe aspect than any other halls / in the Palace, and more in harmony with its purpose. From the back / window you can enjoy a marvellous view over the ravine of the Darro.