Nothing
could be in greater contrast than the unpromising exterior of the pile
with the scene now before us.
We found ourselves in a vast patio or court one hundred and fifty
feet in length, and upwards of eighty feet in breadth, paved with
white marble, and decorated at each end with light Moorish peristyles,
one of which supported an elegant gallery of fretted architecture.
Along the mouldings of the cornices and on various parts of the
walls were escutcheons and ciphers, and cufic and Arabic characters in
high relief, repeating the pious mottoes of the Moslem monarchs, the
builders of the Alhambra, or extolling their grandeur and munificence.
Along the centre of the court extended an immense basin or tank
(estanque) a hundred and twenty-four feet in length, twenty-seven in
breadth, and five in depth, receiving its water from two marble vases.
Hence it is called the Court of the Alberca (from al Beerkah, the
Arabic for a pond or tank). Great numbers of gold-fish were to be seen
gleaming through the waters of the basin, and it was bordered by
hedges of roses.
Passing from the Court of the Alberca under a Moorish archway, we
entered the renowned Court of Lions. No part of the edifice gives a
more complete idea of its original beauty than this, for none has
suffered so little from the ravages of time. In the centre stands
the fountain famous in song and story. The alabaster basins still shed
their diamond drops; the twelve lions which support them, and give the
court its name, still cast forth crystal streams as in the days of
Boabdil.
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