The Royal Palace Gardens in Seville, Spain

The back garden of the Royal Palace of Seville is one of the oldest royal gardens in Europe, with a perfect blend of Islamic, Renaissance and Gothic styles, the pinnacle of Andalusian garden art. The garden is layered with exotic flowers and plants, with citrus trees, palm trees and jasmine and roses forming a fragrant aroma corridor. Rare plants such as giant cactus and arachia introduced in the 14th century add to the exotic charm. The architectural elements are extremely ingenious: the cross-shaped aqueduct symbolizes the four rivers of heaven in the Quran, the fountain inlaid with glazed tiles and the horseshoe arcade make up the theater of light and shadow, the 16th-century addition of a Gothic gazebo forms a space-time dialogue with the bronze statue of Mercury in Roman mythology. The most iconic is the Mirror Pool - the 150-meter-long still water reflects the golden roof of the palace, and looks like liquid stars when the moonlight pours at night. The gardens are laid out in a stepped layout, transitioning from an Islamic-style courtyard to a Baroque labyrinth, with each floor coinciding with the philosophical metaphor of the medieval ‘Paradise Garden’. Inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1994 for its “perfect symbiosis of water, vegetation and architecture”, it remains a living poem of Andalusian civilization.