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Granada and the Alhambra

— Find a corner away from the mass of tourists and imagine yourself here in the fifteenth century.”

It’s late morning and we’re climbing a steep street out of the new city. The white buildings of the venerable Albayzín quarter are dazzling in the spring sunlight. These narrow streets are full of silence and long shadows where once there were the sounds of commerce and prayer.

It’s still March and until an hour or so ago, when we were across the valley at the Alhambra, it was still cool and dewy.

Taking a drink of water at the top of the hill, I wonder what it must be like here in August: I have never visited Spain in the high summer months. At such times, life is something that happens indoors and at night.

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Granada

Capital of Andalusia and former seat of the Islamic Nasrid kingdom, the venerable city of Granada is full of history.

Gazing across at the Alhambra, I try to imagine how it must have been during the last years of the Emirate.

From here, the gulf of time represented by the ravine between us, it’s tempting to think of the Generalife as an exquisite pearl in a hard stone shell: a place of splendid isolation with the sultan as a grand pariah at its centre.

Certainly, the Nasrids would have noted the erosion of influence and the dwindling of fortunes, but it would be two full centuries before the dynasty ended, during which time alliances were made and peace maintained.

The Alhambra complex was built during the fourteenth century, work having started soon after Ibn Nasr had been forced out of Jaén by the Spanish. The alcazaba, a fortified outer citadel, masks off the inner buildings set apart from which is the Generalife (Jannat al-’Arif), the summer palace of the Nasrids.

Everywhere are defining examples of the styles and motifs familiar to Al-Andalus: intricate arabesques repeating to infinity, angular kufic scripts and muqarnas and mocárabes, golden and densely detailed. Beyond, pools reflect light and symmetry and gardens enhance the richness of the place.

Also inside the walls of the citadel stands Charles V’s comparatively dull palace with its circular inner courtyard. Part of an unfinished project that cleared certain central portions of the original layout, the palace is perhaps symbolic of the subsequent Catholic kings’ disdain of history, during which time much damage was done to the structures of the Alhambra.

Today we are fortunate that so much of the complex is still standing and in relatively good condition.

The Alhambra is Spain’s most visited monument and getting tickets can be difficult, so visitors are recommended to book online well in advance.