*Mirador de Daraxa (‘entrance-room’). This charming bay has three windows, reaching nearly to the ground and overlooking the Patio de Daraxa (p. [86]).
We may now return through the Court of the Lions to the Myrtle Court, and from the N.W. side (as indicated at p. [83]) of the latter descend through the Zaguán or forecourt to the Patio del Mexuar, lying 13 ft. lower. This is the oldest part of the Alhambra. On the N.E. side of the court is a pleasing Atrium, with columns and a horseshoe arch of 1522. The adjacent Cuarto Dorado also has Mudejar decoration of the time of Charles V.
The Mexuar (Arabic meshwâr, council-chamber), now the Capilla, was fitted up as such in 1537–44, but not used as the palace chapel till 1629. During the Moorish period it perhaps served as an audience chamber or law-court, and the gallery as a meeting-place for the council of state.—A modern door leads into the Mosala, the Moorish chapel built by Mohammed V., which belonged to the old Cuarto de Machuca (p. [80]), now almost entirely occupied by gardens.
Nearly opposite the Christian Chapel in the Mexuar Court is the underground Viaduct leading to the Baths (right) and to the Patio de la Reja.
The extensive subterranean *Baths (Baños), to the N.E. of the Myrtle Court, in the style of those of ancient Rome (comp. p. [290]), date from the time of Yûsuf I. The first room, now freely restored, resembling an Apodyterium, is the Sala de las Camas or de los Divanes, with two niches for couches, and is remarkable for its graceful superstructure. The gallery was destined for the singing girls. The chief bath-chamber (cuartos y sudoríficos) corresponds to the Tepidarium, and marble baths still exist. The heating apparatus (calorífero) has been destroyed.
From the Sala de las Camas we enter the *Patio de Daraxa (p. [85]), planted with cypresses, formerly the inner garden of the palace, but altered by Charles V. Only the upper basin of the fountain is Moorish. The rooms on the upper floor (Aposentos de Carlos Quinto) contain the Alhambra archives.
The small Patio de la Reja, with its fountain and four cypresses, so called from its window-gratings, dates only from 1654–55.—The stairs at the N.E. corner lead (left) to the Hall of the Ambassadors (p. [83]), and (right) to a new corridor which brings us to the—
*Peinador de la Reina (the ‘Queen’s Dressing-room’), on the upper floor of the Torre del Peinador erected by Yûsuf I. The ‘grotesque’ paintings, in the style of the Vatican logge, and the scenes from Charles V.’s expedition to Tunis (p. [323]) are by Julio de Aquilés and Alex. Mayner.
The *Palace of Charles V. (Pl. 17, E, 2; entrance, see p. [83]) is a massive square pile of 207 ft. each way and 57 ft. in height, with a heavy rustica groundfloor and an upper story of the Ionic order, terminating in a Doric cornice. The building was designed by Pedro Machuca in the Italian high-Renaissance style, in 1526, and its cost was defrayed out of the tribute paid by the Moors. The only completed parts are the façades, the superb circular colonnaded court, of the Doric order below and the Ionic above, and the main staircase, which was not finished till 1635. The richly sculptured W. and S. portals, executed by many different masters, are specially attractive.