This was where legal affairs and matters of state were discussed\nand carried out. In the raised chamber, which could be closed up with shutters,\nwas where the sultan sat and listened to citizens\u2019 demands without being seen.\nAt the back of the room there was a prayer room facing Mecca, richly decorated\nwith plasterwork and overlooking the Albaic\u00edn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the conquest, the Catholic Kings modified the interior of this\nroom, converting it into a chapel of which the choir balustrade still exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The outer walls have undergone so many changes that it is impossible to\nknow for sure what they were originally like. This administrative part of the\nbuilding has two outer courtyards, the first of which houses the remains of a\nsmall mosque with its minaret, whilst the second, known as the Patio de\nMachuca, is where the Torre de Machuca is situated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Mexuar was used as the residence for the architects who worked on\nbuilding the complex, including Pedro Machuca, who designed the Palacio de\nCarlos V.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside there are the Cuarto Dorado (Golden Room), which got\nits name from its gold-leaf dome, and the Patio del Mexuar, with the\nmagnificent fa\u00e7ade of the Palacio de Comares, decorated with stalactite,\nplaster and tiles and covered with a cedar wood with engraved motifs such as\npineapples and shells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was built by King Yusuf I to combine the official management of the\naffairs of state with a private residence of the sovereign. The Patio de\nlos Arrayanesis at the centre of the palace with its porticoes at either end of\nthe gallery. The courtyard has been given a number of names over time. The name\nPatio de los Arrayanes (meaning myrtle) comes from myrtle shrubs whose vivid\ngreen colour contrasts starkly with the white marble floor of the patio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Palace is flanked by the Torre de Comares, which houses\nthe Hall of Ambassadors, where the king, accompanied by his viziers, gave\nformal hearings. The room is square-shaped and its walls are fully decorated\nwith calligraphic motifs, flowers and fruits and geometrical shapes. The\nstarred dome represents the sky. Preceding this space is the Sala de la Barca, at the end of which\nwere the bedrooms of the sultan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To the east of the palace are the Ba\u00f1os de Comares, built in Muslim\nstyle but based on the model of Roman baths. All existing decoration dates to\nthe Christian era, as the poor condition of these rooms meant that they had to\nbe the restored and rebuilt several times over the centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mohamed V, son of Yusuf I, ordered this palace to be built as a private\narea for the royal family and the harem. Its name comes from the twelve marble\nlions that stand at the foot of a fountain in the Patio de los Leones. The\narea is an allegory of paradise, an oasis with flowing water and 124 columns\nand arches symbolising a palm grove. This is the first courtyard in which a new\narchitectural style is adopted: two water channels flow from pools located in\ntwo large rooms, la Sala\nde los Abencerrajes y la Sala\nde las Dos Hermanas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These rooms face each other and both have superb honeycomb work domes.\nIt is said that in the Sala de los Abencerrajes, the king\u2019s private room,\nAbencerraje knights were slain, whilst the Sala de las Dos Hermanaswas so\ncalled due to the two huge marble slabs on each side of the central fountain\nwhich a 14th-century poet once compared to two sisters. Inside is\nthe Mirador de Lindaraja, a small room for the sultan\u2019s favourite. It is\none of the most beautiful rooms in the Alhambra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sala de los Moc\u00e1rabes is the simplest of all the rooms in\nthe Palacio de los Leones.\nIt is situated by the old entrance of the palace and it is named after the\nArabic ornamental design in which it was decorated (\u2018moc\u00e1rabes\u2019 means honeycomb\nwork). It was demolished in 1590 due to its poor condition and the part\nthat remains is the one that survived an explosion in1590.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sala de los Reyes is named after a painting on the dome of\none of the three existing buildings that depicts ten monarchs. The hall is\ndivided into seven parts: three square rooms, separated by two rectangular\nsections and alcoves at each end. The room is entirely decorated in honeycomb\nwork to enhance the light entering the hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Royal Palace is divided into three separate areas: El Mexuar This was where legal affairs and matters of state were discussed and carried out. In the raised chamber, which could be closed up with shutters, was where the sultan sat and listened to citizens\u2019 demands without being seen. At the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":384,"parent":39,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-43","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","column","twocol","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385,"href":"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions\/385"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"http:\/\/focusoneurope.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/peoewqe3nkwat4f7gn3tthkyjm_3.jpg\")
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