up within their sterile embraces deep, rich, and verdant valleys of
prodigal fertility.

In the centre of the kingdom lay its capital, the beautiful city of
Granada, sheltered, as it were, in the lap of the Sierra Nevada, or
Snowy Mountains. Its houses, seventy thousand in number, covered
two lofty hills with their declivities and a deep valley between them,
through which flowed the Darro. The streets were narrow, as is
usual in Moorish and Arab cities, but there were occasionally small
squares and open places. The houses had gardens and interior
courts, set out with orange, citron, and pomegranate trees and
refreshed by fountains, so that as the edifices ranged above
each other up the sides of the hills, they presented a delightful
appearance of mingled grove and city. One of the hills was
surmounted by the Alcazaba, a strong fortress commanding all
that part of the city; the other by the Alhambra, a royal palace and
warrior castle, capable of containing within its alcazar and towers
a garrison of forty thousand men, but possessing also its harem, the
voluptuous abode of the Moorish monarchs, laid out with courts and
gardens, fountains and baths, and stately halls decorated in the
most costly style of Oriental luxury. According to Moorish
tradition, the king who built this mighty and magnificent pile was
skilled in the occult sciences, and furnished himself with the
necessary funds by means of alchemy.* Such was its lavish splendor
that even at the present day the stranger, wandering through its
silent courts and deserted halls, gazes with astonishment at gilded
ceilings and fretted domes, the brilliancy and beauty of which have
survived the vicissitudes of war and the silent dilapidation of ages.

*Zurita, lib. 20, c. 42.