Alhambra

 Overview: 

The Jew­el of Grana­da, the great Red city of the Alham­bra is a stun­ning Moor­ish com­plex that is both a fortress, a palace, a gar­den and was once a great citadel that perch­es above the stun­ning Span­ish city of Grana­da, with the incred­i­ble Islam­ic Archi­tec­ture, stun­ning green gar­dens, tow­er­ing halls and lav­ish courts and halls which all sit with­in its stun­ning grounds mak­ing the Alham­bra an absolute­ly stun­ning exam­ple of Moor­ish Archi­tec­ture and civil­i­sa­tion and a true won­der of the world.  

Believed to have been con­struct­ed between the 13th and 14th cen­turies by the Moor­ish emir Ibn Al-Ahmar, the site of the Alham­bra – perched above the city of Grana­da is itself steeped in his­to­ry with it known to have been a key van­tage point dur­ing the Roman Empire – and which now offers stun­ning sun­rise views over the incred­i­ble city of Grana­da below it, with it also hav­ing once been a ful­ly func­tion­al for­ti­fied city at its peak in the years fol­low­ing its estab­lish­ment, and hold­ing a spe­cial place in Moor­ish his­to­ry as a place of cul­ture, art and life. 

Once known as the red city – report­ed­ly after the beard of the Emir and the unique red sand­stone used to con­struct it — the Alham­bra is also an impor­tant his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ment with its mag­nif­i­cent inte­ri­or and struc­ture stand­ing as a last­ing mon­u­ment to the beau­ty of Moor­ish Archi­tec­ture – which are all eas­i­ly explorable today, with the renais­sance style Palace of Charles V, the stun­ning remains of the Alcaz­a­ba fortress, the elo­quent palaces of the Nazaries and the lush green gar­dens and insight into dai­ly life with­in this won­der afford­ed with­in the Gen­er­al­ife – which com­bined with the stun­ning sun­set views of the won­der from the main squares of Grena­da mak­ing the Alham­bra not just a feat of incred­i­ble Moor­ish archi­tec­ture, but a stand­ing and intrigu­ing beau­ti­ful his­tor­i­cal fortress and a unique and sto­ried won­der of the world.  

Where:

The beau­ti­ful Alham­bra fortress sits a top a hill in the south of Spain in the city of Grana­da – with the stun­ning Sier­ra Neva­da moun­tains flank­ing it on one side, the beau­ti­ful Span­ish coun­try­side vis­i­ble on the oth­er – and there being stun­ning views of the serene Span­ish town of Grana­da in full view below it. 

Getting there:

Found in the foothills of the stun­ning Sier­ra Neva­da moun­tains, Grana­da is a small but stun­ning town in the south of Spain and you’ll need to get to the town first before head­ing up the hill to see the won­der of Alham­bra.  

To get to Grana­da you have a cou­ple of options, the most direct is to fly to the Air­port of Grana­da – which is found half an hour out­side the city, but which is small and for whom you can expect to pay almost €200 one way from most major Euro­pean Cities.  

Although we’d advise fly­ing into either Mala­ga or head­ing to Grana­da on a tour of Spain (includ­ing tak­ing in the won­der of the Sagra­da Famil­ia) and get­ting a train or bus into Grana­da – with Spain’s excel­lent train net­work that runs almost hourly let­ting you go direct to Grana­da in an hour – at a cost of approx­i­mate­ly €10 from Mala­ga giv­ing you a cheap­er and much more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence into Grana­da.  

Once in Grana­da from the city cen­tre you can get Bus C3 from the city cen­tre that takes you direct to the Alham­bra for €2.50 or sim­ply hop in a taxi that will take you up the hill. For those who have the sta­mi­na and fan­cy the trek head­ing up the hill  in the Span­ish Sun – our advice is to head to the square of Plaza Nue­va and then sim­ply fol­low the road up Cues­ta de Gomerez that will take you up to the base of the won­der – test­ing your endurance in the process.  

From the base of the won­der you have your pick of enter­ing via the pavil­ion main entrance on the east side of the won­der – where the main tick­et office is – or for those with pre-pur­chased tick­ets head to the Gate of Jus­tice where you can skip the line with your e‑ricket and head straight into the incred­i­ble won­der.  

 Best time to Visit: 

Giv­en Grana­da can get uncom­fort­ably hot in the sum­mer – and see snow in the win­ter – we’d rec­om­mend vis­it­ing in either spring of Autumn, when crowds won’t be at their peak and the weath­er will be agree­able – with the months of either April or May or Sep­tem­ber or Octo­ber being out picks for the time of year to vis­it.  

For the time of day, you’ll be at the mer­cy of when you can book a slot as only 300 peo­ple are allowed into the ground every half hour, but if you can book in advance wed advise aim­ing for an ear­ly sun­rise spot, where you can catch the beau­ty of Grana­da light­ing up with the sun­rise below you before head­ing to the main Grana­da square of Mirador San Nico­las at sun­set for some incred­i­ble views of the sun set­ting over the incred­i­ble won­der of the Alham­bra. 

Explore: 

The pin­na­cle of Moor­ish Archi­tec­ture the medieval Alham­bra com­plex is four unique sights rolled into one with the Fortress known as the Alcaz­a­ba, the stun­ning palaces known as the Pala­cios Nazaries, the gov­ern­ment area known as the Med­i­na and the lush gar­dens — the Gen­er­al­ife all com­bin­ing to make this for­mer home of the sul­tans a vast impos­ing and stun­ning won­der.  

As well as being a scenic won­der, the Alham­bra is caped in his­to­ry, with the walls of the palaces them­selves still retain­ing the writ­ten carved etch­ings that tell the his­to­ry of the com­plex, as well as being home to a series of woven visu­al rep­re­sen­ta­tions of the beliefs and gods that influ­enced the Moor­ish peo­ple who called this grand com­plex home many cen­turies ago.  

A vast and stun­ning won­der, the below are our top sights to see in the incred­i­ble Alham­bra: 

Alcazaba 

Begin­ning with the fortress area that has stood since the 13th cen­tu­ry, the impos­ing walls of the Alham­bra com­plex, known as the Alcaz­a­ba, stand atop a hill over­look­ing Grana­da and are per­haps the most icon­ic ele­ment of the whole of the com­plex.  

The first part of the com­plex to be explored upon arrival, you’ll notice not only the stun­ning view of Grana­da below you, but also a series of stun­ning designs on the walls them­selves from the pre­vi­ous Moor­ish pop­u­la­tion, and you can get a flavour of both the fortress and secu­ri­ty that these walls afford­ed when the great city was active, before you jour­ney inside the walls, to begin explor­ing the great won­ders of the Alham­bra. 

The Palacios Nazaries

The beau­ty of the com­plex, the Pala­cios Nazaries con­tains a series of palaces, our favourite of which is the great Nas­rid roy­al palace – a tow­er­ing and stun­ning palace that real­ly does rep­re­sent the pin­na­cle of Moor­ish archi­tec­ture, with stun­ning floors, carved ceil­ing and incred­i­bly well pre­served ceil­ings and arch­ways carved out of wood and stun­ning tiled floors – a true archi­tec­tur­al won­der! 

We’d advise com­ing here first, as the palace does get a bit crowd­ed, with the start of the palace lead­ing you first into the Mexar, the old­est but most ren­o­vat­ed sec­tion of the palace which was used as a pub­lic admin room and for large gath­er­ings and feasts. For the obser­vant you’ll notice this area also has hall­marks of being used as a chapel from when the Chris­tians con­quered Spain. 

As you jour­ney through the incred­i­ble palace you’ll also come to the Cuar­to Dora­do – a gold­en cham­ber, with fur­ther stun­ning tiling and ceil­ing work before you jour­ney into a small prayer room and then into a series of ruins which marks the last stand­ing parts of the Pala­cios Nazaries, before they were annoy­ing­ly destroyed by Yusuf I in the 14th cen­tu­ry.  

Palace of Charles V

Along­side the Pala­cios Nazaries, you’ll find the great Alham­bra com­plex home to fur­ther incred­i­ble palaces, with per­haps the most stik­ing being the Palace of Charles V, a some­what new­er addi­tion to the Alham­bra from the 15th cen­tu­ry and con­struct­ed, although nev­er fin­ished, after the Chris­t­ian con­quest of Grana­da.  

A tow­er­ing palace, and some­what out of place next to the Moor­ish archi­tec­ture, the palace was designed to be grander and big­ger than the rest of the com­plex and com­pris­es two lev­els that reach 17 metres high and fea­tures an impres­sive inner court­yard, tow­er­ing columns and stands as one of the best pieces of renais­sance era archi­tec­ture in the whole of Spain.  

But the real joy of the palace is the two muse­ums that sit with­in it – one on each floor, with the Museo de la Alham­bra on the low­er floor telling the his­to­ry and tales of the Alham­bra and con­tain­ing recov­ered his­tor­i­cal pieces and art from through­out the life of the Alham­bra and the sec­ond floor Museo de Bel­las Artes de Grana­da (Fine Arts Muse­um) – which fea­tures some stun­ning renais­sance era to mod­ern paint­ings of the sights of Grana­da and of the Alham­bra – for a great place to immerse your­self in the incred­i­ble his­to­ry of this won­der of the world.  

Myrtles Courtyard

Exit­ing the Palace we’d advise next head­ing for the court of the Myr­tles on a route that takes you to the main spots of the Alham­bra com­plex before oth­ers arrive. At this court­yard you’ll note a large, long pool with hedges and the Arab palace in front of you – giv­ing you that incred­i­ble icon­ic pho­to­graph from inside the Alham­bra.  

If you’re lucky you’ll be able to get a clear pho­to and you’ll see the reflec­tion of the white mar­ble patio reflect­ed in your shot, with the two foun­tains that feed into the pond only adding to the immense beau­ty of the court­yard – with this court­yard once stand­ing as a proud sym­bol of the pow­er and strength of the Moor­ish and the beau­ty of the Alham­bra com­plex. 

Court of Lions

Mov­ing through the Myr­tles court­yard, you’ll pass the Arab palace and come into the palace of the lions a once win­ter retreat for the Emir and the occu­pants of the Alham­bra – who strug­gled to deal with the shift­ing cli­mates in Spain.  

Through the palace you’ll come into an open court­yard – the stun­ning Court of the Lions – with 124 incred­i­ble white mar­ble columns that act as both an art instal­la­tion and as a way to reflect the light into the cen­tre of the court­yard – while you’re find the stun­ning Lion Foun­tain, one of the icons of the Alham­bra.  

The Lion Foun­tain, carved out of Stone, has 12 small­er lions at its base – each rep­re­sent­ing Moor­ish Beliefs and stands as a sym­bol of pow­er, belief and uni­ty, with the Lion believed to have spout­ed water out of its mouth on reg­u­lar inter­vals every hour to mark the pass­ing of time, at its base you’ll find a series of carved ded­i­ca­tions to the Lion dat­ing back to the 15th cen­tu­ry – it’s real­ly worth spend­ing some time here to take in the incred­i­ble tow­er­ing Lion Stat­ue before mov­ing on to explore the great halls of the Alham­bra.  

Sala de los Abencerrajes 

From the court of the Lions you can head south con­tin­u­ing your tour round the Alham­bra and enter into the hall of the Abencer­ra­jes – named after the leg­ends of the Abencer­ra­jes Knights who were believed to be war­riors blessed by God and who accord­ing to leg­end met their end with­in this hall – being behead­ed.  

While sto­ries about the Abencer­ra­jes knights dif­fer, what is estab­lished is to great beau­ty of this hall, with the great domes with­in it tow­er­ing and illu­mi­nat­ing the foun­tain that sits with­in this square hall and the mul­ti-coloured ceil­ing above it – with the ghosts of the Abencer­ra­jes Knights said to revis­it this hall on the anniver­sary of their death ! 

Hall of the Two Sis­ters – Leav­ing the Abencer­ra­jes Hall, you’ll come into the Hall of the two sis­ters – named after two mar­ble slabs rather than any­thing sin­is­ter – with the slabs clock­ing in at 15 foot high and sit­ting in the mid­dle of anoth­er domed room with a stun­ning tiled fres­co and of course a fur­ther foun­tain in the mid­dle of the hall – for anoth­er tru­ly stun­ning hall.  

Hall of the Kings – Mov­ing on from the two sis­ters and back into the Lion Court­yard, you’ll find anoth­er hall – this one wor­thy of the kings – being a great ris­ing hall fea­tur­ing a series of sev­en domes that soar into the clear Span­ish sky.  

Known as the Sala de los Reyes, the most stun­ning ele­ment of the hall is the paint­ed fres­cos on the ceil­ing that date back to the 15th cen­tu­ry and show the dai­ly life with­in the Alham­bra, an incred­i­ble beau­ti­ful and scenic hall where you can snap some stun­ning pho­tos and get a unique life into the dai­ly Moor­ish life of a King.  

Hall of the Ambas­sadors  — Con­tin­u­ing through the great Alham­bra com­plex and you’ll come to the grand­est hall of them all – the hall of the ambas­sadors that also served as a throne room and is the largest room in the whole of the Alham­bra com­plex.  

Enter­ing through a carved arch­way you’ll approach the great throne that lies at the head of the hall, pass­ing mul­ti­ple reli­gious chap­ters and flo­ral dec­o­ra­tions carved into the floor of the hall as you re-trace the steps that ambas­sadors once trod to approach the great ruler of Grana­da.  

Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est are the great nine stain glass win­dows that illu­mi­nate the hall and the mul­ti-coloured ceil­ing and cre­ate an impos­ing path­way to the king, with the ceil­ings them­selves being par­tic­u­lar­ly beau­ti­ful and dec­o­rat­ed in the shape of stars, moon and crowns that reflect the wis­dom of the Nas­rid Kings that once sat in this great hall.  

This Hall is also the spot of unique his­to­ry, being the place of rit­u­al exe­cu­tions and with it lead­ing to the great Comares Tow­er where the Moor­ish are believed to have made their last stand against the Catholic inva­sion.  

Comares Tow­er – As you exit the great hall of the ambas­sador you’ll notice a series of tow­ers on either side – though some are but ruins the biggest still stand­ing is the impres­sive Comares Tow­er with incred­i­ble stained glass win­dows that look down into the Kings hall and which – through a steep stair­case – you can sum­mit for incred­i­ble views down into the grand hall below you and for stun­ning views of the Sier­ra Neva­da Moun­tains through its win­dows.  

Along­side offer­ing stun­ning views and being a great exam­ple of the secu­ri­ty of the com­plex, the Comares Tow­er is also again steeped in his­to­ry – with it report­ed­ly being the place of the last stand of the Moor­ish before the rule of Alham­bra fell into the hands of the Catholics in the 15th cen­tu­ry – with the final Nas­rid King tak­ing time to observe his hall from this tow­er before final­ly sur­ren­der­ing.  

Gen­er­al­ife

The gar­dens of the king, the Gen­er­al­ife is accessed be exit­ing the hall of the ambas­sadors and cross­ing a quaint bridge into the great green gar­dens of the Nas­rid  where you’ll find a series of stun­ning gar­dens, lush green flo­ra and some incred­i­ble water dis­plays and foun­tains that give you a great place to sit and admire both the stun­ning archi­tec­ture of the Alham­bra, the rolling Sier­ra Neva­da Moun­tains and the beau­ty of Grana­da below you.  

Jour­ney­ing into the gar­dens, you’ll find them in an almost Ital­ian style and sep­a­rat­ed into Low­er Gar­dens with a series of square ponds that leads to the great Gen­er­al­ife Palace where you can grab spec­tac­u­lar views of the whole of the Alham­bra before you. For those with a keen sense of hor­ti­cul­ture you’ll like to spend time admir­ing the main canal that criss-cross­es the gar­dens as well as the water stair­way – two stun­ning aquat­ic fea­tures that real­ly light up the lush green Flo­ra found in this exquis­ite gar­den.  

Once the favourite spot of the Moor­ish Kings int eh 14th cen­tu­ry, the Gen­er­al­ife extends up the great hill in Grana­da and fol­lows a sim­ple cir­cu­lar path, allow­ing you to see all the high­lights of this incred­i­bly state­ly gar­den with there also being serene, wood­ed areas, sparkling flowerbeds, a Cypress avenue and a chance to sit under the hill of the Emirs in the shade and pon­der on the beau­ty of the Alham­bra – as so many Kings and Emirs have done before you.  

Breath-taking Views:

Along­side explor­ing the incred­i­ble Alham­bra up close, part of its beau­ty undoubt­ed­ly comes from the stun­ning views it offers of Grana­da below – with the great fortress hav­ing been pur­pose­ly built on a hill to offer pro­tec­tion through the Alcaz­a­ba walls, also giv­ing you the best views of the snow-capped peaks of Sier­ra Neva­da and the sparkling city of Grana­da – with these views alone mak­ing a trip up the Alham­bra worth it.  

Fur­ther as the Alham­bra sits a top a hill, it also offers stun­ning views from the ground, with it being posi­tioned to watch the glo­ri­ous Span­ish sun­set illu­mi­nate this incred­i­ble mon­u­ment a top the hill – with a sun­set view­ing of the whole of the Alham­bra fortress from a Span­ish café down below being a per­fect way to cap off a vis­it to this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

How long to stay:

We’d rec­om­mend bud­get­ing a half day for the Alham­bra, you’ll only need 2–3 hours to sum­mit the hill and explore the great com­plex – which is best done ear­ly in the morn­ing – but if you can time your vis­it to Grana­da with a trip to the Mirador San Nico­las square in the evening to watch the sun­set over the fortress you’ll get stun­ning view of this incred­i­ble won­der.  

 Top Tip: 

With the Alham­bra being a stun­ning won­der it’s incred­i­bly pop­u­lar – which is not helped at times by the vis­i­tor lim­its put in place which can cause long queues out­side, which in the Span­ish sun can­not always be fun, so we’d advise to be sure to vis­it in the off sea­son in Spring or Autumn and be sure to get your tick­ets in advance for an ear­ly morn­ing slot and then top your tour off with a sun­set view­ing from the squares of Grana­da.  

Along­side that Spain is over­all a very safe coun­try, so be sure to come with plen­ty of water and sun­screen to pro­tect your­self against the Span­ish sun and give you an over­all more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence at the won­der of the Alham­bra.  

Cost:

Tick­ets to the Alham­bra are incred­i­bly pop­u­lar and sell out fast even in the off sea­son – main­ly as a result of there being vis­i­tor lim­its to enter the grounds of the Alham­bra of 300 every hour – so it’s advise to pre-book well in advance at [https://tickets.alhambra-patronato.es/en/] and grab an ear­ly morn­ing times­lot for the best views of Grana­da below and for a more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence.  

Once online you can expect tick­ets to cost €14.85 – and it’s advised to get there 15 min­utes before your time slot starts to avoid poten­tial­ly large queues.  

All in all, account­ing for a bus or trip to the Alham­bra from Grana­da and a bite to eat, you can expect to pay €30 euros to vis­it this spec­tac­u­lar won­der – which in our book is a bar­gain.  

Best photo spot:

While the inside of the Alham­bra offers many incred­i­ble pho­to spots, not least the icon­ic pho­tos of Myr­tles Court­yard and the beau­ty of the hall of ambas­sadors from the Comares Tow­er – the spot where the last king of the Moor­ish came to view the beau­ty of the Alham­bra before sur­ren­der­ing – our top pick for a pho­to of the Alham­bra is the famous sun­set pho­to of the whole of the com­plex and the out­er Alcaz­a­ba walls from the streets of the Mirador San Nico­las square in Grana­da – from where you can cap­ture incred­i­ble panoram­ic pho­tos of both Grana­da and the Alham­bra for a tru­ly mag­i­cal pho­to and an incred­i­ble sun­set this is the best way to cap off a stun­ning day vis­it­ing the true won­der of the world that is the Alham­bra.