The most impressive section of the building is the Central Courtyard with its reflecting pool. The courtyard consists of three separate levels, with the pool at the lowest one. It receives water from large underground cisterns at both ends; water lilies originally floated in the pool along with goldfish. A small room with a high ceiling was erected at one end (direction?) of the pool. Its walls were covered with blue and white Armenian tiles depicting themes from nature. The well-known Armenian ceramic decorator, David Ohanessian, designed the tiles. A small fountain, whose waters once filled a small octagonal pool and flowed through a narrow channel into the central pool, stands in the center of the room. The fountain was dismantled during the Jordanian administration of the building.
The courtyard is surrounded by three porticos, separated from the pools by an arcade of arches covered with crossed vaults. Large items are exhibited below the arches, between the arcade columns. Ten reliefs, engraved by Eric Gill, line the upper walls of the arcade along both sides of the pool – representing Canaan, Egypt, Judea, Phoenicia, Assyria-Babylon-Persia, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Islam and the Crusades.
The central courtyard was inspired by the 14th century Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, considered one of the wonders of Moorish architecture in medieval Spain and of all times.
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