The Parterre d'Eau consists of two large rectangular basins — about 75 metres long each — on the main terrace directly in front of the palace's west facade. They were among the last major works completed at Versailles under Louis XIV, in the 1680s, and are the first thing you see when you walk out through the Hall of Mirrors onto the terrace.
Each basin is lined with 24 bronze figures — river gods, nymphs, spirits of the Seine, the Loire, the Rhône, and other French rivers — lying in reclining poses around the rim. In the basins themselves, central fountain jets rise when the water is running. The figures are among the finest bronze sculptures in the gardens, modelled by the leading sculptors of the 1680s: Coysevox, Tuby, Le Hongre, Regnaudin.
The Parterre d'Eau is the place from which most visitors take their first photograph of the gardens — the view past the basins, down through the Latona fountain, to the Grand Canal. It is completely exposed to the midday sun, and on a July afternoon it can be brutal. Early morning or late afternoon, the bronze figures catch excellent light and the crowds are thinner.