The Alhambra - Historical and cultural information

During our chat over our delicious Moroccan dinner this evening, David mentioned his idea for the Alhambra posts - an all-photo post followed by a mathematical discussion of symmetries and crystalline forms. I decided immediately that I wanted to offer an alternate view, for those who are less mathematically inclined. Let's begin!

First, a brief history.

The Alhambra is a collection of monumental buildings atop the Cerro de la Sabika, or Red Hill, overlooking Granada. The Alcazaba fortress was the first of the buildings to be constructed, somewhere around the end of the 9th century. The Nasrid Palaces and Generalife gardens making up much of the rest of the Alhambra were added 100 years later by Muslim sultans. The name Alhambra likely originated from "al-Hamra", the Red, because of the red glow coming from torches used to illuminate the buildings at night. Over several centuries, as the area changed hands between Muslim and Christian rulers, buildings were added or changed to accommodate their new inhabitants.

The buildings.

The Alcazaba, as mentioned earlier, was a fortress. A small city was constructed just around the fortress to house the military. Many of the walls and buildings making up the original fortress are unfortunately no longer standing. We were able to go up some of the towers that are still intact, photos of the views over the city from those vistas don't quite do them justice. That's basically true, though, of all the photos from this visit!

The Nasrid Palaces are where we took the majority of photos. The first, the Mexuar, has seen the most change over time. first built under the reins of Muslim sultans, it was changed to a chapel (by knocking down some walls and adding a section for a choir) after the Christian conquest. The Comares Palace is the central one, with an iconically long, still pool in its central courtyard. The purposes of such pools in Muslim architecture was to serve as a mirror, and to make the palace appear larger and as if it is floating on water. The main hall of the Comares Palace has a beautiful honeycombed ceiling built in 7 symmetrical bands, alluding to the 7 heavens in Islam. All around the wall are religious inscriptions in cufic, Mghrebie and Aladalusian characters, especially a repetition of "Allah alone is the victor." The last building, the Court of the Lions, has a courtyard filled with a dizzying array of columns, all with delicately carved arches like lace and a central fountain surrounded by marble lions (hence the name). By this point it really felt as if each subsequent palace had outdone the previous ones, with the carvings in archways, windows, walls and ceilings becoming more and more intricate. Within the Court of Lions, the Hall of Two Sisters also contains an elaborate honeycombed ceiling, this one made up of over 5000 separate pieces, and the walls are inscribed with a poem by Zamrak describing the beauty of the room itself.

The name of our final area, the Generalife, is understood to be derived from two Arabic words, "djennat" or garden, paradise, even heaven and "al-Arif" or architect, so potentially "Garden of the Architect." These areas were used by nobility living in the palaces when they needed a little "me" time. The lower gardens were designed to be long and narrow, so that sitting at one end you had an expansive view ahead of you. Long narrow reflecting pools are included here as well, surrounded by a variety of flowers and trees. Most of the original greenery has been updated since its original usage. The upper gardens have a maze-like structure and were re-created in 1931 after being bought back from private ownership. The gardens have been re-created to best represent what the gardens may have been like at the time.

TLDR, it's amazing, just go and check it out some time.