Never was the annihilation of a nation more complete. Where are they? The exiled remnant of a once powerful people became assimilated with the predatory hordes of Barbary and the desert southward. A few broken monuments are all that remain to bear witness to their power and dominion in Europe.
Such is the Alhambra; an epoch marking relic--a Moslem pile in the midst of a Christian land; an Oriental palace amidst the Gothic edifices of the West; an elegant memento of a brave, intelligent, and graceful people who conquered, ruled, and passed away.
L’Alhambra! l’Alhambra! palais que les Génies Ont doré comme un rêve et rempli d’harmonies; Forteresse aux créneaux festonnés et croulans, Où l’on entend la nuit de magiques syllables, Quand la lune, à travers les milles arceaux arabes, Sème les murs de trèfles blancs! _Les Orientales_, par _Victor Hugo_.
The Alhambra--the Acropolis of Granada--is, indeed, a pearl of great price in the estimation of all travellers, exciting in the breast of the stranger the most absorbing interest and concentrated devotion. To realise the full spell--the mystery and the magic of the Alhambra--one must live in the building by day and contemplate it--like the ruins of fair Melrose--by moonlight, when all is still. “Who can do justice,” says Washington Irving, “to a moonlight night in such a climate and in such a place! The temperature of an Andalusian midnight in summer is perfectly ethereal. We seem lifted up into
[Illustration: ASCENT TO THE ALHAMBRA BY THE CUESTA DEL REY CHICO--LESSER KING HILL.]
a purer atmosphere; there is a serenity of soul, a buoyancy of spirit, an elasticity of frame, that renders mere existence enjoyment. The effect of moonlight, too, on the Alhambra, has something like enchantment. Every rent and chasm of time, every mouldering tint and weather-stain disappears; the marble resumes its original whiteness; the long colonnades brighten in the moonbeams; the halls are illuminated with a softened radiance until the whole edifice reminds one of the enchanted palace of an Arabian tale.”
[Illustration: BALCONY OF THE “CAPTIVE” (ISABEL DE SOLIS), OVERLOOKING THE VEGA, OR PLAIN, OF GRANADA.]
Art and nature have combined to render Granada, with its Alps, Plain, and Alhambra, one of those few places which surpass all previous conceptions. The town is built on the spurs of the hills, which rise on the south-east to their greatest altitude. The city overlooks the _Vega_, or Plain, and is about 2,500 feet above sea-level. This altitude, coupled with the snowy background, renders it a most delicious residence; the bosom of snow furnishing a never-failing supply of water for