The fountain is the reason everyone stops here. Twelve carved lions carry a twelve-sided basin, and water runs from it along four channels that divide the courtyard into quarters — a garden plan with a long history in Islamic architecture, and the clearest statement of it in the building.
The arcade around it is carried on slender paired columns, thin enough that the roof looks unsupported from some angles. That is deliberate.
⚠️ The lions were dismantled and conserved in recent decades and the courtyard's paving has been reworked more than once. What you see is authentic in substance and restored in detail, which is true of most of the Alhambra.
Stand at one of the four entrances rather than in the middle — the courtyard is designed to be seen along its axes.
Patio de los Leones, photographed
