Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Today we had tickets to tour the Alhambra! We got an early start, which was a good thing, because as the day progressed it got more and more crowded. Even this late in the season, it was quite crowded. Rick Steves says it gets 8,000 visitors a day.
The Alhambra complex sprawls across the top of a hill opposite the Albayzin neighborhood. Upon entering the complex, you find yourself on a park-like plateau where lovely buildings and landscaping greet the visitor, much as they must have greeted visitors 500-800 years ago.
Yesterday we “oohed” and “aahed” at a view of the Alhambra from Mirador (viewpoint) de San Nicolás. Today we got to see the Mirador from the Alhambra. |
| The Plaza San Nicolás/Mirador is marked in yellow |
Our tickets included an early timed admission to the Palacios Nazaríes or Nasrid Palaces (300 admitted every half hour), so we went there first. This is the “must-see” sight in the Alhambra complex. It is a stunning building, consisting of royal offices, ceremonial rooms, and private quarters. The palace is filled with carved wood, stucco, plaster, and ceramic tiles. Courtyards showcase fountains and plants. Everything is covered with geometric patterns, floral decorations, or stylized calligraphy of verses from the Quran.
Inside the palace it was hard to juggle listening to the audioguide, finding our way around the massive palace, avoiding bumping into all the other people, remembering to take pictures, and trying to get good images in rooms without enough light. In other words, don’t expect a lot of photos. Go look on the internet if you want to see more of the inside of the palace.
Of course, the courtyards had lots of light, and they were picture-worthy in their own right. The elite women of Moorish society were generally cloistered and did not leave the palace much. At least they had courtyards where they might be able to get some fresh air and walk among greenery. They also had locations where they could sit behind a carved wooden screen and see without being seen.
Lower class women in this society had to work or keep house and go to the market every day and get the laundry done. They probably did not have the privileges (and limitations) of upper-class women with regard to being veiled and going out in public.
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| The Courtyard of the Lions |
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| Another pleasant courtyard |
Many rooms had elaborate stalactite ceilings and arches made from molded plaster.
The Hall of the Ambassadors is believed to be the room where Christopher Columbus asked Ferdinand and Isabel to finance his a journey to establish a new route to the Far East.
The Hall of the Abencerrajes is the setting for a tale by Washington Irving. (We also passed by the room where Washington Irving stayed in 1829 while he wrote Tales of the Alhambra.) Irving told of the massacre by the father of Boabdil of 36 members of a North African family who had been invited to a banquet in this hall. |
The ceiling in the Hall of the Abencerrajes
After we completed our tour of the Palacios Nazaríes, we had time to visit other parts of the Alhambra complex, which includes the Palace of Charles V, the Alcazaba (fort), and the Generalife Palace and Gardens. At one time there was a self-contained city of 2,000 within the walls of the Alhambra complex, with a mosque, a market, public baths, and a water system.
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| We saw lots of pathways paved with black and grey stones all over Granada |
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| The Church of Santa María de la Alhambra was built upon the foundations of the Great Mosque of the Alhambra in the 16th century |
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| Reflection of the Damas Tower |
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| Inside the Palace of Charles V |
Our visit to the Alcazaba, the fortress, consisted mostly of climbing up to various vantage points to see different views of Granada. The fort is mostly in ruins, so there isn’t much else to see there.
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| The Granada Cathedral |
Our final destination was the Generalife Gardens. This is where the Sultan’s vegetable gardens and fruit orchards were found, as well as his summer palace, called Generalife. The 600-year-old garden is still lovely to stroll through.
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| Orchards |
I am amazed that the structures and gardens are in such good condition. They have at times been left to fall into disrepair, but the Moors knew how to build and the people of Granada and all of Spain know they have a great treasure here to protect and maintain.
The Moors occupied much of Spain, especially Andalusia, for almost 800 years and it is important to be able to see what life was like during those times and to understand what traces of this culture still exist in modern Spain. Moorish art and architecture persists. Their ideas about gardens and courtyards and fountains are still evident in Seville, Cordoba, and Granada, and many other places, I am sure. Many aspects of Moorish culture have survived despite the unflagging efforts of the Catholic rulers of Spain to eliminate Muslims from Spain from 1492 on.
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Today’s fabric is a “tapestry-type” fabric from telas.es. Tapestry is a piece of thick textile with pictures or designs formed by a specific method of weaving (weft-faced weaving) or by embroidering on canvas. Tapestry is often used as a wall hanging or furniture covering.
I believe this is a Gobelin fabric, which would make it a tapestry-type fabric. It was likely produced on a jacquard loom using weft-faced weaving. Some people would not consider Gobelin a true tapestry because it is machine-woven, rather than hand-woven, hence, “tapestry-type.”
I could not determine a name, artist, or source for this tapestry beyond https://www.telas.es/p/tela-decorativa-tapiz-tejido-de-alfombra-terracotta-rojo-fuego/“telas.es”, but for me, this particular fabric captures the spirit of the Alhambra (Arabic for “The Red One” or “The Red Fortress or Castle”).
