Lonely Planet Review

Seeing Ksar Char-Bagh for the first time you think you've died and entered some perfect Islamic paradise. It is simply extraordinary - a wonderland of murmuring streams, glassy pools and extravagant architecture modelled on the aesthetics of the 14th-century Moorish court.

The enormous scale of the architecture (the enormous facade, a perfect crenellated cube against an azure sky) simply takes one's breath away. Enter the 6m-high beaten bronze doors to a football-sized patio of the most exquisite stucco work, a riot of vegetal designs frothing above the most slender pillars. Inside, the decor has the same extreme aestheticism, allowing the light and shade its full effect. The 12 Harim suites and one superlative apartment want for nothing, while the public spaces cater for every possible indulgence - there's a cigar salon, a billiard room, wine cellars and a church-like vaulted dining room where you can dine like a king on specially created menus. Everywhere the murmur of water soothes and caresses (the criss-crossing streams apparently symbolise the rivers of paradise). Have I died and gone to hotel heaven?