The Alhambra

What can I say about the Alhambra in Granada that hasn’t been written a hundred times before? I shan’t even try. Since the 9th century this striking hillside site just outside Granada has been a fortress, an Islamic palace, a Royal palace, gardens, a whole city. It’s even been an abandoned ruin. Javi’s grandmother used to come up to this abandoned place with her friends for picnics.

Now it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We tried to imagine what this place meant to those who lived here over the centuries. Southern Spain is hot. For months it’s rarely cool, even at night. Here are cool courtyards; formal canals and ponds; trickling or cascading fountains; elegant chambers with exquisitely, delicately carved tracery; slender columns; magically evanescent roof spaces reaching heavenwards.

I offer you a scrapbook of images. You can find history lessons, detailed descriptions elsewhere. I don’t offer you selfies. I left that to the – mainly younger – visitors who wanted only to pose and pose and pose again for yet another image against a beautifully wrought backdrop to which they paid no attention whatever.

29 thoughts on “The Alhambra”

  3. Oh it is exquisite. Your photos really convey a lot. Thank you.
    I don’t understand the travel selfie culture – hopefully it’s only a fad but I suppose it might only fade when replaced by other ways of keeping up with the social media Joneses?

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  7. Margaret… thank you for sharing your adventures. The influence of the vast Muslim empire from 1000-1500 is impressive and sadly so little is known of it in the west. When the kingdoms of Europe were fighting amongst themselves and denying rationale knowledge thought the Islamic scholars were building on the knowledge and philosophies of the ancient Greeks and Romans. I’d love to visit southern Europe and North Africa. But for now I have to let you be my guide. Enjoy your trip and keep reporting.

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  12. Your pictures are exquisite. For me they brought back good memories of last October. While the entire tour was long and had a lot of steps the beauty and history of The Alhambra was worth it. Thank you.

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  13. How gorgeous and your fabulous photos have managed to exclude the crowds – well done you. I can’t imagine how wonderful it must have been to visit with friends for a picnic when it was abandoned. What an amazing privilege.

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  14. Lovely to revisit The Alhambra. It was the place that I first saw the Arabic use of water as a way of cooling a living space.

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