At each
end of the antechamber are alcoves, and its ceiling is richly stuccoed
and painted. Passing through a magnificent portal I found myself in
the far-famed Hall of Ambassadors, the audience chamber of the
Moslem monarchs. It is said to be thirty-seven feet square, and
sixty feet high; occupies the whole interior of the Tower of
Comares; and still bears the traces of past magnificence. The walls
are beautifully stuccoed and decorated with Morisco fancifulness;
the lofty ceiling was originally of the same favorite material, with
the usual frostwork and pensile ornaments or stalactites; which,
with the embellishments of vivid coloring and gilding, must have
been gorgeous in the extreme. Unfortunately it gave way during an
earthquake, and brought down with it an immense arch which traversed
the hall. It was replaced by the present vault or dome of larch or
cedar, with intersecting ribs, the whole curiously wrought and
richly colored; still Oriental in its character, reminding one of
"those ceilings of cedar and vermilion that we read of in the prophets
and the Arabian Nights."*
* Urquhart's Pillars of Hercules.
From the great height of the vault above the windows the upper
part of the hall is almost lost in obscurity; yet there is a
magnificence as well as solemnity in the gloom, as through it we
have gleams of rich gilding and the brilliant tints of the Moorish
pencil.
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