El Mexuar is an audience chamber near the Comares tower at the northern edge of the complex. It was built as a throne room for Ismail I, but later became a reception and meeting hall when the palaces were expanded in the 1330s.

The room has complex geometric tile dadoes (lower wall panels distinct from the area above) and carved stucco panels that give it a formality suitable for receiving dignitaries.

Behind El Mexuar stands the formal and elaborate Comares façade set back from a courtyard and fountain. The façade is built on a raised three-stepped platform that might have served as a kind of outdoor stage for the ruler. The carved stucco façade was once painted in brilliant colors, though only traces remain.

A dark winding passage beyond the Comares façade leads to a covered patio surrounding a large courtyard with a pool, now known as the Court of the Myrtles. This was the focal point of the Comares Palace.

The Alhambra’s largest tower, the Comares Tower, contains the Salón de Comares or Hall of the Ambassadors, a throne room built by Yusuf I (1333-1354). This room exhibits the most diverse decorative features contained in the Alhambra.

There are double arched windows which illuminate the room and provide breathtaking views. More light is provided by arched grille or lattice windows set high in the walls.

The walls are lavishly decorated with tiles laid in intricate geometric patterns. With the remaining surfaces covered with intricately carved stucco motifs organized in bands and panels of curvilinear patterns and calligraphy.

The Palacio de los Leones or Palace of the Lions stands next to the Comares Palace but is considered a separate building. The two structures were connected together after Granada fell to the Christians.

Muhammad V built the Palace of the Lions’ most ornate feature in the 14th century. The fountain in the courtyard has a complex hydraulic system consisting of a marble basin on the backs of twelve carved stone lions. They are positioned at the intersection of two water channels that form a cross in the rectangular courtyard.

An arched covered patio encircles the courtyard and displays fine stucco carvings held up by a series of slender columns. Two decorative pavilions protrude into the courtyard along the East and West at the narrow sides of the courtyard, which accentuating the royal spaces behind them.

To the West, the Sala de los Mocárabes or Muqarnas Chamber, may have functioned as an antechamber and was near the original entrance to the palace. It takes its name from the intricately carved stalactites or “muqarnas” that hold up the vaulted ceiling.

Across the courtyard, to the East, is the Sala de los Reyes or Hall of the Kings, is an elongated space which is divided into sections with arches leading up to a vaulted muqarnas ceiling. The room also has multiple alcoves, some with an unobstructed view of the courtyard.

This room contains paintings on the ceiling which represent courtly life. The images were first painted on tanned sheepskins, in the tradition of miniature painting. They use brilliant colors and fine details and are attached to the ceiling rather than painted on it.

There are two other halls in the Palace of the Lions on the northern and southern ends; they are the Sala de las Dos Hermanas or the Hall of the Two Sisters and the Hall of Abencerrajas or Hall of the Ambassadors. Both were residential apartments with rooms on the second floor. Each also have a large domed room sumptuously decorated with carved and painted stucco in muqarnas forms with elaborate and varying star motifs.

The Palacio del Partal or Partal Palace was also built in the early 14th century and is also known as del Pórtico or Portico Palace because of the portico formed by a five-arched arcade at one end of a large pool. It is one of the oldest palace structures in the Alhambra complex.