The present low-lying Entrance (Entrada Moderna), adjacent to the emperor’s palace, leads into the—
*Myrtle Court (Patio de la Alberca or de los Arrayanes), which belongs to the Comares palace (p. [80]), and derives its name from the myrtle-hedges (mesas de arrayanes) around its pond (alberca). The court is 121 ft. long and 75 ft. in breadth. At its N.E. end rises the Comares tower (see below); to the S.W. it is overlooked by Charles V.’s palace, which stands about 16 ft. higher. At each end of the court is a beautiful arcade, borne by six slender marble columns and paved with marble; that at the S.W. end, with its upper gallery, open at the top, deserves special admiration. At the N.E. end the arcades terminate in curious niches (Arabic ar-hanîya) with stalactite vaulting, once coloured blue.
The first door on the N.W. side of the court leads into the custodian’s rooms, and the next but one into the Patio del Mexuar (p. [85]); opposite the latter door, from the S.E. wall of the court, stairs (generally closed) descend to the Baths (p. [85]). Opposite the entrance of the palace is a door leading into the Sala de los Mocárabes (p. [84]) and the Lions’ Court (p. [81]). The stairs in the S.W. angle of the court lead into the interior of Charles V.’s palace (p. [86]).
An ornate horseshoe arch at the N.E. end of the court gives access to the ante-room of the Comares Tower, the Sala de la Barca, whose barrel-vaulting was destroyed by a fire in 1899. By the entrance are two niches for water-vessels. The wall of the tower is pierced with a superb archway, right and left of which are two other fine niches.
The ruinous Torre de Comares, 148 ft. in height, built, it is said, by workmen from Comares, and crowned, with modern pinnacles, contains the—
**Hall of the Ambassadors (Sala de los Embajadores), a room in two stories, 36 ft. square and 59 ft. high, once the royal reception room. The last meeting of the Moors under Boabdil, before the capitulation of Granada, was held here in 1491. Inscriptions record that Yûsuf I. was the builder. The larch-wood dome of the hall has been compared to the facetted surface of a cut diamond. The immense thickness of the walls is apparent from the depth of the window-niches, each of which affords a different view. The central windows (so-called Ajimez, Arabic khamsîya) are each divided into two by a slender column. This hall is one of the most richly decorated in the Alhambra.
From the first window-niche on the right in the S.E. wall a passage leads to the Peinador de la Reina (p. [86]) and to the lower floor.
We return to the Myrtle Court and (as indicated above) pass through the Sala de los Mocárabes into the—
**Court of the Lions (Patio de Los Leones), which owes its name to the Fuente de los Leones, a famous fountain borne by twelve lions. The building was begun by Mohammed V. in 1377. The court, 92 by 52 ft., is bordered all round with a colonnade, from which at each end protrudes a superb domed pavilion. The columns are alternately single and grouped. The tasteful elegance of this court, originally shaded by six orange-trees, contrasts strikingly with the showy pomp of the Myrtle Court. The fretwork decoration in stucco looks like carved ivory. Besides the lion-fountain, the court contains, at the ends of the arcade, eight flat marble fountain-basins. The fountains play on a few festival-days only.
The Court of the Lions, whose upper floor contained the women’s apartments, restored in 1907, is adjoined by handsome rooms all round. On the N.W. side is the present ante-room of the court, called the—