Granada: The Alhambra and the Last Kingdom of al-Andalus

You are facing the Gate of Justice, the great horseshoe-arched entrance to the Alhambra. It was built in 1348. Look above the outer arch: there is a hand carved in the stone. Now walk underneath and look at the second arch, further in. There is a key. Legend says the Alhambra would fall on the day the hand reached the key. No one knows the true meaning. Perhaps the hand stands for the five pillars of Islam. Perhaps the key is the faith that opens the gates of heaven. You are entering the citadel of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. It was the last Muslim state on the Iberian peninsula. It last…

You have climbed up to the Alcazaba, the military part of the Alhambra. If you can, go up the Torre de la Vela, the tallest tower. From the top you can see all of Granada. Look west, toward the plain. There, in 1491, the armies of Isabella and Ferdinand camped. They built a whole town for the siege, in the shape of a cross, and called it Santa Fe. Granada held out for months. Inside there was hunger and division. The last sultan, Muhammad XII, whom the Christians called Boabdil, secretly negotiated the surrender. On 2 January 1492, the Christians entered the Alhambra. At the top of this tow…

You are in the Court of the Myrtles. Look at the long pool lined with hedges and, at the far end, the Comares Tower reflected in the still water. This was the sultan's official palace. Here he received ambassadors and subjects. The water is not decoration: it is a mirror that doubles power. Go into the tower, to the Hall of the Ambassadors, the throne room. Look at the wooden ceiling. It is made of more than eight thousand interlocking pieces. It represents the seven heavens of the Islamic paradise, one above another, with God's throne at the very top. The sultan sat beneath, in the center,…

You are in the Court of the Lions. Look at the forest of slender columns, the arches that look like lace and, in the center, the fountain held up by twelve marble lions. Sultan Muhammad V built it in the second half of the fourteenth century. It was the private part of the palace, the family's residence. The four channels running from the fountain represent the four rivers of paradise. The whole courtyard is an image of the heavenly garden. Now go into the room on the south side, the Hall of the Abencerrajes. Look at the ceiling: a dome of plaster stalactites that looks like a honeycomb or …

You are facing the Palace of Charles V. From outside it is a square stone block. Go in: inside is a perfectly circular courtyard, ringed by two floors of classical columns. It is one of the great Renaissance buildings in Spain. And it is wedged, by force, into the middle of the Alhambra. Emperor Charles V, grandson of Isabella and Ferdinand, visited Granada in 1526 on his honeymoon. He was dazzled by the Nasrid palaces. And he decided to build his own next to them. To do it, part of the Islamic palaces was demolished. The message was clear: the new power is this one, Christian, imperial, Ro…

You are in the Generalife, the sultans' summer estate. Look at the Court of the Water Channel: a long channel of water, lined with fine jets that cross in the air, among flowers and cypresses. From here, the Nasrid kings escaped the heat and the palace protocol. It was orchard, garden and place of rest. Listen to the water. It is everywhere. It runs through channels, tumbles down stairways, rises in jets. In a dry land, water was the ultimate luxury. It comes from the river Darro, several kilometers up the mountain, through a channel built by Nasrid engineers. That system still works. For …

You are in the Albaicín, on Plaza Larga. Look at the white houses, the high walls of the cármenes hiding gardens inside, the stone streets climbing up and down. This was the most populous quarter of Muslim Granada. And after 1492, the heart of those who stayed. For seven years, the surrender treaty was more or less respected. Granada's first archbishop, Hernando de Talavera, tried to convert the Muslims patiently. He learned some Arabic. He preached through interpreters. In 1499 Cardinal Cisneros arrived in Granada, a much harder man. He imposed mass baptisms. He imprisoned those who refuse…

You are at the San Nicolás viewpoint. Look straight ahead: the whole Alhambra on its hill, red and gold. Behind it, the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, often snow-capped. It is one of the most famous views in Europe. At sunset, the stone catches fire. There are always guitarists, tourists and vendors. Now look to your left. There is a white building with a minaret: the Great Mosque of Granada. It opened in 2003. It was the first mosque built in the Albaicín in more than five hundred years. Its garden has exactly this view. In 1609, King Philip III ordered the expulsion of all Moriscos from Spa…

You are in the Sacromonte. Look at the houses dug into the hillside, with white fronts, prickly pears and small doors. They are caves, lived in for centuries. Poor Moriscos occupied them and, later, Roma families. In these caves the zambra, a form of flamenco born in Granada, has been danced for generations. At the top of the hill stands an abbey. Its origin is one of the strangest stories in Spain. In 1595, treasure hunters found lead sheets in these caves, engraved in an odd form of Arabic. Beside them, human remains. The sheets claimed to be first-century Christian texts, written in Ara…

You are on Plaza de Bib-Rambla, in the center of Granada. Look at the fountain of the giants in the middle, the flower stalls, the café terraces where people drink hot chocolate with churros. In Nasrid Granada, this was a square beside one of the city gates. Tournaments, festivals and markets were held here. At the end of 1499, Cardinal Cisneros had the Arabic books confiscated in the city brought here. Qurans, works of theology, poetry, history, philosophy. They were piled in the middle of the square and burned. The figures usually repeated speak of thousands of volumes. We will probably n…

You are in the Alcaicería. Walk through these narrow alleys, with Arab-style arches and shops full of lamps, teapots, rugs and ceramics. In Nasrid times, the Alcaicería was the silk market, the kingdom's great business. It had gates that were locked at night and its own guards. Granada silk was exported across the Mediterranean. Mulberry trees to feed the silkworms grew all over the region. Thousands of families lived by spinning, dyeing and weaving. After 1492, the silk trade went on. The new Christian lords taxed it heavily. The Moriscos kept doing the work. When they were expelled in 16…

You are facing the Royal Chapel, the Gothic building attached to the cathedral. Look at the facade covered in coats of arms with the yoke and arrows, the symbols of Isabella and Ferdinand. Inside, if you go in, you will see two large white marble tombs. On one, the recumbent figures of Isabella and Ferdinand. On the other, their daughter Joanna, whom they called the Mad, and her husband Philip. But the bodies are not in the marble. Go down to the crypt: there are plain lead coffins on view. That is where they truly rest. The Catholic Monarchs had palaces all over Castile and Aragon. They ch…