  We adress the problem of the reasons for the existence of 12 symmetric spaces
with the exceptional Lie groups. The 1+2 cases for $G_2$ and $F_4$ respectively
are easily explained from the octonionic nature of these groups. The 4+3+2
cases on the $E_{6,7,8}$ series require the magic square of Freudenthal and,
for the split case, an appeal to the supergravity chain in $5, 4$ and 3
spacetime dimensions.
