La Alhambra

Okay, so here's the post on La Alhambra. I'm basically just going to post up the pics and comment on them. It's pretty long, so if you get bored..too bad =p

We took a cab and then the Alhambra Bus - as the Alhambra is situated on higer ground. Holy, the bus driver must have great driving skills cuz the the roads were SO narrow, and man he swerved..I remember hitting my hip bone at the side of the bus - Ouchy! and it was filled with people! So finally we got to the place. We didn't know where the entrance was so we guessed it was the other side..So we walked and walked till we reached the place..we were walking on a tar road enclosed with trees..very beautiful (and shady). Then we met one of the staff there. She said the entrance was the OTHER side (where we were initially). So we walked back..but I enjoyed the walk. It was very peaceful.

Long walk back to the the start

As I mentioned in my previous post, the line was so long to get the tickets. We had pre-bought our tickets and managed to get in in a shorter amount of time. We rented an audio tour thingy, so that we actually know what we were looking at!

hmm can my company manufacture this?

Alhambra actually means The Red One / The Red Fotress because the colour of the mountain it was built on was red.

Door of the seven floors

When we walked we could see the influence of the English in the gardens - the trees were shaped into squares. It was a hot day and the greenery was a great comfort for the eyes.

We walked around and every time we reached a spot with a sign like this (below), we pressed the number in our Audio guide and it'll tell us something about that place.

Palace of Abencerrajes

If you click on this pic, you can see that the tiles are still intact.

House of the Nasrids

Their water source in their homes. If I'm not mistaken the water source of Alhambra is from the Durro River. Don't think i saw the river though.

We walked through the Medina (Citadel) and noticed there were public baths. I read online and it seems that there are also ovens, workshops, silos and cisterns and, the houses of top government officials, employees and court servants. (Sorry didn't notice that when I was there) - I only saw souvenir shops around.

Bathroom of the mosques

In the baths

There is a church next to King Carlos(Charles)' Palace. I cannot remember the name but it was beautiful. (Checked online it said it was the Church of Santa Maria.)

You will see a lot of horse-shoe shaped archways over here. This is the Torre del Vino (Wine Tower), built in 1345 and used in the 16th century as a cellar.(Thanks Wikipedia).

Next was the Alcazaba. It was where the tower of arms are situated.

Open spot - where they used to have flamenco dances.

District where the soldiers stayed. There were also underground dungeons for the captives. But now they are locked and no one is allowed in. Scary!

Can't see further than the pitch darkness in this dungeon.

Foundations of the houses

Tower of Arms

Hoping that's sierra nevada in the far back. View from the top of Torre de la Vela

There's a bell at the top and I think they ring it on a certain date for a certain reason - ahahaha can't remember why!

This is the Original Entrance into the Alhambra during the Moorish times. This entrance is called The Tower of Justice (Torre de la Justicia). I noticed on the horseshoe archway, there's always a key being carved inside. (I can't to find any of them in any of my pics grr). Apparantly it is a symbol of authority. In the picture below, you can see there's a statue of Mother Mary (I think) - This is how you can see the influence of Christianity when the Catholic Kings took over.

Guard's sitting place

King Charles V Palace

According to the audio guide, and my fading memory, I understood that King Charles loved Granada a lot and wanted to build a palace for him there so he could stay there when he visited. On the contrary, in this site, it says that "This is one of the emperor's projects for the city of Granada. The choice of the Alhambra for its construction shows the king's awareness of the beauty of the Arab palaces and his interest in preserving them for posterity."

Anyway, all I knew that in the end the palace wasn't completed and all that was left was this circle Colosseum look alike thingy(pic below). According to that site again, it said that the project was abandoned because the Court was fully established in Madrid and the kings lost interest in this place.

Now it holds a museum as well (where one of the lion of the 12 lions are exhibited after its' restoration) There are also pots and mosaics that are exhibited that were found during the Islamic reign. We were not allowed to take photographs in the museum. There is also a souvenir shop at the end of the museum. I bought a CD there that has music about the Alhambra. Lula bought a few stuff for her brother there if I'm not mistaken.

Now I will post about the Nasrid Palaces. The entrance wasn't a grand one (in contrary to King Charles'). In fact, it was a small entrance that were sort of covered by trees and vines.This was I suppose a way to protect the royals. So when the enemies came, they would not realise that this was the entrance of the palace.(Does that make sense?) This connects to the Patio de los Arrayanes (Court of the Myrtles), also called the Patio de la Alberca (Court of the Blessing or Court of the Pond) (Last sentence is taken from Wikipedia).

The small entrance

Don't be fooled by the size of the entrance, once you enter, you will realise that inside it is in fact very grand.

The entrance from inside

The golden gilt has long worn off (or was it scraped off by the Catholic kings?) I can't remember much, but I think the Catholic Kings did do something about this room to make it less grand..sorry if I misunderstood!

Beautiful

Golden ceilings

Patio del Cuatro Dorado (Patio of the 4 Dorados?)


In the picture above, you can see 2 doorways. The one on the right is used by the royals, where else the one on the left is used by the common folk... Yes, we had to use the left door.


Beautiful arches

I just realised that this place is quite a popular spot for pictures. When I surfed online, this location is always shown. I checked on Wiki and there's a story behind this pond. "The birka(pool) helped to cool the palace and acted as a symbol of power. Because water was usually in a shortage, the technology that was required to keep these pools full was expensive and difficult. The aim of the pools was to make the average person think that the pool had mystical powers because it never evaporated, making them form a good opinion of their leader. This court is 42 m (140 ft) long by 22 m (74 ft) broad; and in the centre, there is a large pond set in the marble pavement, full of goldfish, and with myrtles growing along its sides. There are galleries on the north and south sides; that on the south is 7 m (27 ft) high and supported by a marble colonnade. Underneath it, to the right, was the principal entrance, and over it are three windows with arches and miniature pillars. From this court, the walls of the Torre de Comares are seen rising over the roof to the north and reflected in the pond.

That's the Torre de Comares at the back

This is where the King goes to pray. Waited quite a while to get this shot cuz there was a bloke who was standing there with his camera for SO LONG, trying different angles for his shots. Man I wanted to kick him in the shin!!

Walls filled with carvings of Arabic words

Had to take this pic - It's so beautiful, and it's so sad to see it ruined.

Court of Lions

Love this dome thingy.

Where the 12 lions' fountain is supposed to be. They are supposed to represent courage and strength. Lions had to go to the Restoration Hospital, so they were unable to flaunt their power when we were around (Just our luck eh?). If you notice, there is 4 drain-like thingy that connects to the middle - they are supposed to be where the water flows and reach to the four parts of the Court(ends in a fountain). It was done this way to make it look like a sign of the Cross- yet another way to show the the Christians took over the palace. Interesting right?

Hall of the Abencerrajes (see the cool mosaic tiles on the left?)
(Abencerrages, was a family or faction that is said to have held a prominent position in the Moorish kingdom of Granada in the 15th century.)

This was built to represent that they could reach the heavens..the higher it looks, the closer they are to God. Just learnt that they carvings called "mocárabe"- "Honeycomb"

It was said that this was where the Abencerrages family was murdered and their blood were shed at this fountain. (No I don't think those stains are from the blood, but rather rust - I hope)

Got more info from Wiki- The story is told that one of the Abencerrages, having fallen in love with a lady of the royal family, was caught in the act of climbing up to her window. The king, enraged, shut up the whole family in one of the halls of the Alhambra, and ordered the Zergis to kill them all. The apartment where this is to have taken place is one of the most beautiful courts of the Alhambra, and is still called the Hall of the Abencerrages.
One more legend from Wiki - a legend according to which the father of Boabdil, last king of Granada, having invited the chiefs of that line to a banquet, massacred them here.
I think the conclusion is that some people got murdered here.

Looks like stained glass up there, but only some of the glass still remain there.

Where the ladies could sit and watch the outside world without being seen..

Room of the Ambassadors


Washington Irving wrote Tales of the Alhambra when he stayed here! I read the book and it was good - really transported me back to Granada =)

The view.

Palace of Yusuf the 3rd. -whatever that is left of it anyways - look closely, can you see a chicken-shaped bush? hehehehe


The Architect Garden! It is a poetical-religious symbolism that refers to God, Allah, as an architect, the creator of the universe. (It didn't hit me then =p just read about it online).

The pictures below speaks for themselves..

There's a story saying that this was where lovers used to meet in discreet during the royal times. Maybe one guy got caught and it's this dude's family that got massacred in the Hall?

Water staircase - it had water flowing down from the side of the steps all the way up. Very nice..so soothing to the touch as it was scorching hot!!
All through our audio guide - they will mention about water. There's a bit that goes "If you want to know the importance of water, please press .." and I always skipped it! I'm going to quote form a site: "Water, the element that shapes the palace, combining the garden with architecture, represents purity. Crystalline water running between the fountains' marble. Life-giving water making the garden lush and fresh, providing aesthetic beauty, the sultan's generosity... a whole world of symbols and stimuli."

SO now you know the importance of water to Alhambra!

Ending...Walking through an archway of flowers...really worth going here! I had the time of my life..Lula and I were gushing that this place was so beautiful. I'm really glad you waited and went to La Alhambra with me =) abrazos

This post took me one and a half days - uploading, remembering and getting more information online!!

The three site that I got extra information from:
Alhambra and Generalife
Official Site of Alhambra
Wikipedia