Meditation on Water

We’ve been in Granada several days now, with a grand tour of the Alhambra and an olive oil tour/tasting. Granada was the last place in Spain to be reconquered by the Christians in 1492. The city is more multi-ethnic than many places and it has a definite North African flavor to it, at least in parts. There are remnants of the Silk Road marketplaces while the Alhambra (the Moorish fortress) sits on a hill overlooking it all.

The conquering Christian king fortunately did not tear down the Moorish palace. He built his own and kept the Moorish one. That makes the palace at the Alhambra a wonderful remnant of the Moorish world, a place to see the elaborate architecture of a different time and culture. In much of Spain the story has been that the Moorish mosques were torn down and the cathedral built in its place, leaving mere remnants of Moorish architecture. Here one gets to see it in all its glory.

A tour of the palace is a walk into a different world. And a major component of Moorish architecture is how fountains were built into the living structures as well as into the gardens. Water was an important part of Islamic culture. They were, after all, originally from the desert and water was an important symbol of life. All the fountains and pools in this palace give it a particular peacefulness as you step from a courtyard into a living room with the two spaces connected by narrow little channels of water in the floor, water that is flowing from a fountain in one area into a fountain in the next.

Sometimes there are pools, sometimes fountains, sometimes little canals. And always the water is running quietly giving it a particular peacefulness and creating a cooling effect in the process. In the gardens where there were a number of water spouts pointed into the air the effect was quite different, it was much noisier with splashing water. This type of fountain was a nineteenth century Christian addition to the place. The Moors preferred the quieter effect of water running down gently or standing still, at most a low gurgling.

My favorite spot in the entire place was the staircase in the gardens called “Escalara del Agua.” At each landing of this long flight was a small fountain and the banisters doubled as small channels for water to flow downward.

Perhaps this is all more noticeable and meaningful to someone from a drought-stricken place like California. It seemed simultaneously extravagant and peaceful and beautiful. Whether it is listening to the rain on the roof or hearing it gurgle in a brook or standing under a stream in the shower, water is a wonderful thing.