At the palace Alhambra a forbiddingly austere and fortified exterior encloses a complex of cool
rooms, ingeniously heated baths and sun-drenched courts overlaid with intricately devised
and exquisitely wrought decorations to provide settings for a life of cultivated luxury The 2 most impressive chambers are grouped around rectangular court: one known as the
Patio of the Lions, so named for the fountain at its centre. The other known as the Patio of
Myrtle trees which has a central rectangular pool fed by gently overflowing fountain basins There are colonnaded interior courts green with plant and running water. All these memorably
imposing and symmetrically grouped spaces open unexpectedly out of one another, like
successive incidents of some rambling story in the Thousand and One Nights Arcades rest on slender columns, and divided into 4 parts by shallow watercourses emanating
from the lion fountain at the centre. This layout symbolise the Qur’anic vision of paradise - a
garden below which 4 rivers flow with water, wine, honey, and milk - and planted courtyard