“Some of the irregularities which obtain here seem almost incredible. What could be more satisfactory than this range of exquisite arcading, its slender palm-like stems, its gracefully stilted arches, and the fairy filigree-work of the spandrils? There seems to be not one single point that can offend the justest eye, and yet there are nearly a dozen different archings, differing in form, or height, or width; the cloister varies in breadth at every turn; the upper galleries are uneven; the doorways are the personification of self-will; the columns are placed, sometimes singly, sometimes grouped, and the numbers of them on the respective sides in no way correspond.... And, nevertheless, there is an all-prevailing symmetry--and harmony. The whole is a triumph of accurately judged effect.” In a foot-note Mr. Lomas adds: “As an instance of the careful way in which the architects of these olden days went to work, it may be mentioned that the exact relation between the irregular widths of cloistering on the long and short sides of the court is that of the squares upon the sides of a right-angled triangle. This obtaining of beautiful symmetry through irregularity is a strangely lost art.” We will now proceed to a more detailed description of the Palace of Al Ahmar. THE PATIO DE LA MEZQUITA AND ADJACENT BUILDINGS. Recent researches have shown that the ancient ingress to the Palace of the Alhambra was by a doorway leading into what is now the chapel. It is square in shape and has long been walled up. Above it may be deciphered the following inscription: “O place of the high kingdom and asylum of prodigious aspect! Thou hast achieved a great victory, and the merits of the work and of the artificer [are] the glory of the Imam Mohammed. The Shadow of the Most High [be] upon all!” This text is believed to refer to Mohammed III. (1302-1309). The chapel, which had been established by Ferdinand and Isabel adjacent to the Patio de los Leones, was transferred to this part of the Palace of Philip IV. in 1621. At that time a fine chimney-piece in the Renaissance style was converted into an altar. The apartment contains but few remains of its Moorish builders. Without, is the Patio de la Mezquita, with an exquisite façade, much disfigured by a modern gallery. The walls are adorned with the oft-recurring device, “God alone is Conqueror,” and with sentences extolling the sultans, in various sorts of arabesques. The inscription round the central window refers to Mohammed V. (1354-1391).