The Moor's Last Sigh both opens and closes in Benengeli, in a forsaken graveyard overlooking Alhambra, the site of the Moors' last stand against the advancing rulers of Catholic Spain. The bulk of the novel, however, is set on the west coast of India, on the island of Cochin, a remnant of Portuguese and British rule, and in Bombay, the great Cosmo polis, crossroads of the subcontinent, and its face to the West. The interiors of high-class buildings are most often portrayed: the Zogoiby mansions, the Cashondeliveri Towers, museums, and galleries. Wharves, nunneries, prisons, houses of worship, and the teeming streets, however, play a contrasting role.