The first thing you see on the tour is the Walled Garden. The Untermyer Gardens website describes it as follows:

The Walled Garden owes its inspiration to the great Indo-Persian gardens of antiquity. Like the ancient gardens, the Walled Garden is divided into quadrants by waterways and bordered by crenellated walls anchored by octagonal towers. The Indo-Persian walled garden was intended to mimic a paradise on earth and thus had features inspired by religious descriptions of paradise. Biblical descriptions of Eden include four rivers (Pison, Gihon, Tigris and the Euphrates) and two great trees (the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil). Islam describes paradise, or Jannah, and includes similar elements: four rivers of life (water, milk, honey and wine), and the Tree of Life. The word ‘Paradise’ itself comes from the Persian words ‘Pairi’ and ‘Diz’ meaning, respectively, ‘Around’ and ‘To create (a wall)’.

The walled garden from the entrance

Sphinxs

Temple of the sky (with the Hudson River and Pallisades in the background).

While the concept was Indo-Persian, the gardens at Greystone were appointed with Greek-inspired elements including the Temple of the Sky, a roofless circle of Corinthian columns topped by an entablature festooned with a classic palmette and anthemion design, the open air amphitheater where guests could be entertained by dancers, musicians or poetry, and the stoa where one could relax.