ABSTRACT
The Alhambra, located in southern Spain, was visited by Escher in 1936. “For whole days at a time he and his wife made copies of the Moorish tessellations [mosaic patterns], and on his return home he set to work to study them closely.”1
The repeated cloning of the shape that makes up the mosaic varies in orientation and tonality but all share a common contour. “These patterns represent a high point of the Arab exploration of the subtleties and symmetry of space. . . .”2 Seen from the outside, the Alhambra takes the form of a fortress. From the inside it is a palace of honeycomb courts and chambers. “The Alhambra is the last and most exquisite monument of Arab culture.”3
