Begun in 1238 by Muhammad I ibn al-Ahmar, founder of the last Muslim dynasty in Spain (1238)
The Nasrid emirate of Granada held out for two and a half centuries after the rest of al-Andalus fell
Geography · Landmarks & wonders
The Alhambra
begun 1238
Spain — Granada, on the Sabika hill above the Darro
The palace-fortress of the Nasrid emirs of Granada, begun in 1238 by Muhammad I on the Sabika hill and brought to its height in the 14th century under Yusuf I and Muhammad V. Its courts of carved stucco, muqarnas vaults and tiled geometry make it the best-preserved palace of the medieval Islamic world; it passed to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 and was rescued from ruin by 19th-century Romantic travellers.
How to spot them
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Nasrid', 'Granada', 'Court of the Lions', 'muqarnas', 'Generalife', 'Boabdil'
- ▸Carved stucco, honeycomb vaults and Kufic inscriptions above tiled dados
- ▸The name comes from the Arabic for 'the red one'
- ▸A Renaissance palace by a Holy Roman Emperor sits incongruously inside it
Key facts
Its most famous court has a fountain resting on twelve stone lions
The Palace of the Lions, built under Muhammad V in the 1370s; the lions' basin was engineered to run on a water clock
Its vaults are built of muqarnas — thousands of tiny stalactite-like cells in plaster
The Hall of the Two Sisters has over 5,000 of them
The motto 'there is no victor but God' is carved across its walls hundreds of times
Wa la ghaliba illa Allah, the Nasrid dynastic motto
Charles V demolished part of it in 1526 to build a circular-courtyarded Renaissance palace inside the walls (1526)
Never roofed in his lifetime; it now houses the site's museums
Its last Muslim ruler handed over the keys to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 (1492)
Muhammad XII, known to the Spanish as Boabdil; Columbus received his commission in these halls the same year
Washington Irving lodged in its crumbling rooms and wrote a book of tales that made it famous (1832)
Tales of the Alhambra brought Romantic tourists, and eventually restoration
M. C. Escher sketched its tilework and built a career on the mathematics of the patterns
His visits in 1922 and 1936 led directly to his tessellation prints
Quick-fire facts
- •The name comes from the Arabic al-qal'a al-hamra, 'the red castle', after the colour of its walls
- •The main palaces are the Mexuar, the Comares Palace (with the Hall of the Ambassadors) and the Palace of the Lions; the Partal is the oldest surviving
- •The Generalife on the neighbouring hill was the emirs' summer villa and garden estate
- •Inscribed by UNESCO in 1984 as 'Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada'
- •It is one of Spain's most-visited monuments, with daily ticket limits on the Nasrid palaces
- •Common misconception: the elaborate carving is not stone but moulded and carved plaster (stucco), originally painted in colour — the present monochrome is faded, not intended
- •Another misconception: it is a walled town in miniature, with mosque, baths, barracks and workshops, not a single palace
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Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada
- Robert Irwin — The Alhambra