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Medersa ben Youssef, Marrakesh, Morocco, 1998

"The word 'paradise' comes from Arabian culture and so probably does our idea of enclosing nature with walls. And in arid Morocco, as in the rest of the Arab world, the nature worth enclosing begins with water.

In the case of the Medersa ben Youssef garden, in Marrakesh, it ends with water as well. In a cut-stone courtyard, a dark rectangle of still water reflects the intricate architecture. Otherwise there is nothing—no foliage, no flowers. But in a teeming desert city the effect is cooling and serene."

—From the National Geographic book Seeing Gardens, 2000

Photograph by Sam Abell