SALA DE LOS EMBAJADORES—HALL OF AMBASSADORS.
After traversing the Hall of the Barque, we come upon the Hall of Ambassadors—the Golden Saloon—with a dome which bursts like a flower-bell upon the sight. The most
ENTRANCE TO THE HALL OF THE BARQUE, WITH VIEW OF THE COURT OF THE FISH-POND, OR OF THE MYRTLES.
beautiful thing about these Moorish domes is, not their grand poise and balance, but the airiness of them. They seem mere resting clouds swelling round you and canopying you with colour. You have no sense of their weight or means of permanency. The stalactite ornament, as it is called, seems fashioned in emulous rivalry of golden-celled honeycomb, in which honey still rests; honey, dyed by the juices of the flowers from which it has been drawn. The walls are like the leaves of illuminated missals, framed by cornices of poem and prayer.
THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS.
The Hall of Ambassadors is a square of thirty-seven feet, and is sixty feet high from the floor to the centre of the dome. It is the largest, as well as the most imposing of the Halls of the Alhambra, though in arrangement and symmetry of details less perfect than the Hall of The Two Sisters.