Besides warmth of color and grace of form, the Moorish architects worked for durability. The aqueducts they built still bring an abundant supply of water from the mountains to fill those baths, fountains and marble-bordered ponds for which the courts and gardens of the Alhambra are famous. In spite of earth-quakes the columns and arches have nearly all held their place and their perfect form. The palace that Charles V built there in a vain effort to rival the Moorish masterpiece, and for which he made room by removing part of the Alhambra palace, stands today an uncompleted and roofless ruin; while the much older Alhambra is still clothed in a glory of bright, fresh color. The Alhambra is not one building, but a collection of buildings on a high plateau. Long before the erection of the great palace the hilltop was surrounded by a wall with many towers for defense, and the Alcazaba, the first palace built on the Alhambra hill, was used as a residence by the early kings of Granada. Older than all, the "Vermilion Towers" stand on a neighboring hill, some distance outside the now ruined Alhambra wall. The Palace of the Alhambra is said to have been started by Mohammed: but the foundations were probably laid by Calif Al Hamar, who is also distinguished for having begun to pay a yearly tribute to the kings of Castile. The construction went on during several reigns, and was completed by Yusuf with the building of the Gate of Justice in 1348. All the later kings of Granada lived in it until 1492, when the Moorish power fell before Ferdinand and Isabella, and Boabdil was banished forever from the home of his fathers. [Illustration: AMIENS CATHEDRAL] _Amiens Cathedral_ THREE It was at Amiens that the renowned Saint Martin gave half of his cloak to a beggar who stood shivering by the roadside. Other saints in that city, though we know less of their life histories, must have exercised even more generosity during the Middle Ages to build and rebuild the old cathedral in the face of repeated misfortune. The patience and zeal with which those men of Amiens raised up their cathedral four times from its ashes, remain forever in the fame of this most perfect of French Gothic churches.