The Alhambra

"We can never obtain peace in the world if we neglect the inner world and don't make peace with ourselves. World peace must develop out of inner peace." - The Dalai Lama


Oh the Alhambra. The jewel of Granada, and more importantly one of the greatest works of Spain and the Moorish/Muslim world. I am lucky to walk past this wonder every day, and that is what it is, a wonder. There recently was a voting for the new seven wonders of the world, and the Alhambra was one of the contenders. It did not win the vote, which is too bad, but it still received the recognition of being one of the finest historical achievements in the world. What is it exactly, I will tell. The Alhambra is a series of palaces, forts and gardens that are on a hilltop near downtown Granada. They are much more than that though, as they are an achievement of Muslim Spain. The name Alhambra means red house, after the red soil that is so evident in the area. The Alhambra in fact was whitewashed when it was in its glory, although today it is more of a brownish color.

Let me begin by telling more of the history that I know, and trust me, I don’t know near as much as Wikipedia or some other source could tell you. What I do know is that the Alhambra was built in stages sometime between the 12^th century and the 15^th century, with other parts added in the 16^th by the Christians. The fort or garrison was the first part of the Alhambra that was built and that dates back to Roman times I believe, as an outpost for the area. Later, as the Moors controlled Spain, Granada was an important city, although Cordoba was the capital. Then as Cordoba and other areas of Spain began to fall to the Christians, Granada became the focal point and the stronghold for the Moors starting late in the 11^th century. It was during this time that the Arab leader of the area wanted to make a grand palace on the hill overlooking Granada, and so the first of the Palaces was constructed. Later others were also constructed in this area. These palaces illustrate all of the glory of the Moors achievements, in art and architecture.

As Ferdinand and Isabella overtook Granada in 1492, shortly before Columbus departed, they took up residence in the Alhambra. Later, the Holy Roman Emperor who ruled Spain as well as most of Europe at the time came to Granada in the 1500s and built a Palace next to the Moorish palaces, tearing down some historical areas in the process. Then sometime in the 17^th and 18^th century the Alhambra was forgotten, and left unkept, although never destroyed. Time passed, and during the 19^th century Washington Irving came to Granada, and lived in the Alhambra for a number of years. He wrote of all the tales that he learned of the Alhambra from locals, and published this later into a book. Also during this time Napoleon took Granada, and similar to other areas that he overtook his soldiers desecrated parts of it, even bombing parts of the walls of the garrison.

The Alhambra continued though, and sometime in this time period, post Irving, it was given a new life, and there was renewed attention for it. The gardens were redesigned and it became what it is today, which is a museum of the old in near perfect condition. That is what I visited.

The Alhambra is a thing that I knew I wanted to visit many times before I left Granada, but I was not sure when I would be able to go since it costs 12 euros, and on most days you have to book well in advance, because they only allow a limited amount of people in daily (it is a large amount of people, but still hard to get a ticket, as one of the most visited monuments in Europe). I was able to go on a tour with my school, and one of our teachers was a guide. This was good as she had all the insight on the Alhambra, but she spoke in Spanish the whole time, so I would say I learned a lot, but still missed some parts.

I learned many things and from my pictures you can see how intricate the detail was that went into each part of the Alhambra. It is in amazing shape today, given what it has been through, after siege and war in the area. The tour that we took was incredible, and I was stunned by what I saw. Many times you go to a place after building it up in your mind, and you are happy with your visit, yet sort of let down at the same time. This was definitely not the case for me, because although I had built this up, it was more than I imagined. There was only one disappointment for me the whole day, and that was in the Court of the Lions, as the Lions, one of the most famous parts of the Alhambra were gone, as they are being restored and will be back available to view in 2010. That is fine though, as I have seen pictures of them. After the palaces we moved on to the gardens and they were incredible as well, and the detail, it’s hard to describe, but the detail and the views were just beyond words.

I wish I could explain it more, but that is all. The Generalife is home to the Summer Palace and the gardens, which include one part that is not in Spanish or Muslim style at all, as the gardens were redone in the 1800s in French and Italian style.

That doesn’t matter though, it just makes it better I think, as now there are four different cultural characteristics in one area. It was incredible. I recommend a visit. In the future I will be able to describe it better, but for now this is all.