exterior, how
curious the material of which it is built, and how wonderful its
interior is. Note especially its marvelous dome, its pillars, built of
marble and mosaics, its galleries and seats, so unusual in a great
church. Take up the history of its greater columns, some from the Temple
of the Sun at Baalbek, built by Aurelian, others from the Temple of
Diana at Ephesus, and still others from Thebes, Athens, Rome, and
Alexandria. This one topic of the columns could fill a meeting.

The use of color in the church should be emphasized; greens, blues,
reds, black and white, rose and gold all mingle here in the decoration.
Lamps, globes of crystal, even ostrich eggs, are suspended from the
ceiling. Carpets and rugs, inlaid lecterns, painted sentences from the
Koran are all of interest, but perhaps most remarkable are the scenes of
Moslem life and worship at all hours.

As to the history of the great church,--that covers all of the Middle
Ages, and extends even to our own day. Christians and Mohammedans have
fought for it; it has withstood sieges and bombardments, and known
massacres and pillage. Read from many sources; one good description by
De Amicis is found in "Turrets, Towers and Temples."

VI--MOORISH ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN

On a hill-top in Spain in the fortified suburb of Granada is the famous
palace of the Moorish kings, the Alhambra. A large part of it was torn
down by Charles V to make way for a palace which he began but never
finished; it has suffered from neglect, from spoliation, from
bombardment, from earthquakes and from fire; yet it still remains to-day
an exquisite and unique piece of architecture. The whole place is easily
divided into its parts, and papers may describe them separately. The
entrance with its great vestibule and the inner portal, one with a
gigantic hand and the other with a key, around which emblems cluster
fascinating legends, may be the first subject; then will follow others
on the Hall of the Ambassadors, the Court of the Fish Pond, the Court of
the Lions, the Hall of the Two Sisters, and the Hall of the
Abencerrages. The Court of the Lions is the most beautiful, with its
alabaster fountain resting on the crouching lions; the Hall of the
Abencerrages witnessed a famous massacre; show pictures of these two
rooms. Notice how everywhere there are the vaulted ceilings of carved
cedar wood, the bubblelike domes, the mosaics, the tilings, the
arabesques, the delicate tracery of color,