Monty Don's Paradise Gardens

Monty Don examines the Islamic gardens and their religious meanings. In the first episode, he starts in Spain with its rich Moorish influence. Next he goes to Morocco where the Moors were expelled to. Finally, he's headed to Persia to uncover some foundational early influences on Islamic gardens. In the second and last episode, he starts in Turkey for fifteen minutes and the rest of the show is in India.

The gardens in Spain are not actually that interesting. Everybody has seen them before. Tourists are all over the place. It's the lesser known places that are more interesting. The most compelling is probably Morocco. This is about the beauty and also about the lesser traveled. In the end, it is all about paradise and man's attempts at achieving it on earth.