The Alhambra

Our visit to the Alhambra finally took place Friday afternoon. We have spent this week in Granada seeing the Alhambra from below and across the valley...

...in the fading daylight...

...and at night when it's all lit up...

I was a little concerned that we might find it an anticlimax. There is so much hype...images of the Alhambra are in every tourist publication. We met other tourists for whom this was the only reason to visit the city (e.g. "this has been on my bucket list forever!") I have been fortunate to visit other famous Islamic sites such as the Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri and others in India, and wondered if this would be as good. Well, it is!  Herewith a selection of fabulous images of Generalife, built as the emir's summer palace at the end of the 13th C:

And from the Nasrid Palace. This place is actually a collection of palaces, or rooms, built over many centuries, used by Isabel and Ferdinand as their palace for several years, and has been lovingly restored, first beginning in the mid-1800s, and is ongoing.

Elaborately carved plaster is everywhere...

...as are elaborate ceramic tile work--but we found this tile work less intricate than in Morocco.  I wonder if the Moors continued to develop their ceramic inlay skills after expulsion from Spain to Morocco but the craft remained static here? 

A fabulous ceiling...

And what it looks like from the outside...

Photo credits mainly to Lloyd! I was content to wander and admire. I loved the water flowing everywhere...through channels, into and out of pools, fountains, reflecting pools... 

Granada is blessed with a good water supply which is what attracted the Moors (and others before and since) in the first place. A lack of water was the undoing of the Islamic rulers in Fatehpur Sikri in India, where all the elaborate fountains are dry, so it was a pleasure to see these water gardens in action.

A welcome chair! (I need a haircut!!)

We're now in Córdoba, having taking the train here this morning (Saturday). We have a small apartment  (Casa Pepa) for 4 nights in the old part of the city and have just shopped for enough groceries for the next couple of days. The market (fresh fruit, veg, bread, meat, fish, cheese, eggs) is nearby as well as a supermarket for everything else (wine and milk!)

Pomegranates

The pomegranates of Granada

When the Moors defeated the Visigoths in 711, there was already a Jewish settlement around the foot of the Alhambra hill named "Garnata al Jahud" from which the name Granada was derived. "Granada" means pomegranate in Spanish, and these trees grow well in this climate. Images of pomegranates are everywhere, from utility covers...

...to stone carvings on tops of arches...

...window ledges...

...blue and white tiles...

...downspouts...

...traffic stanchions...

The latter are so necessary in protecting pedestrians from vehicles, but sometimes the roads are almost not wide enough for cars!

The River Darro that runs through Sacromonte and then goes underground at the Plaza Nueva, was once full of little mills. Here are some old grinding stones now used in a wall:

Granada, Thursday and Friday morning

We spent most of Thursday morning and early afternoon wandering through the neighbourhood of Albaicín (the original Moorish city) right up the hill to the top of the old city walls (the church and Abbey of San Miguel--that white building in the upper left)...

...and then down into the neighbourhood of Sacromonte, where there are fascinating cave homes.

 It was a delightful wander, pausing to check the map every now and then, but mainly being guided by our intuition, e.g. come to a corner and, "Shall we go up or down? That street looks interesting, or what's around that corner?" The graffiti is dramatic and seems to be an acceptable part of the urban landscape here. People appear to take lots of time in creating these complex images, making us think that these are not painted in the middle of the night in poor light.

We stumbled into the neighbourhood of Sacromonte when we walked down the hill from San Miguel, first seeing this dog enjoying the sun in this old chair...

We soon realized that this chair was about 20 m in front of a rudimentary cave house. In front was a table with a pan of water. We could see smoke coming from a stack, and the door was open...then out popped a man who waved at us. (No photos...too intrusive) We carried on down the path, and could see all sorts of other cave houses.

As we got lower down, the houses became more permanent looking, with whitewashed  fronts, paved paths, well established gardens, and obviously serviced with utilities.

Later in the day we went on another walking tour with a guide into the same neighbourhoods, and discovered that Sacromonte is a well established "Gitano" neighbourhood (a.k.a. Gypsy or Roma), and that the ancestors of many of the current residents started arriving here 500 years ago. The Gitano were originally from the Punjab in India...some are still nomadic, roaming as far as Ireland. Also settling in this area were Moriscos (Moors converted to Christian) who were no longer welcome to live in the original Arab neighbourhoods of Christian Grenada in the 1600s.  We learned that the rudimentary cave houses we saw higher up are occupied by "hippies", and others literally living on the margins of society, and yes, there are no services further up the hill. 

On Friday morning, we went back yet again to Sacromonte to visit the Museo Cuevos del Sacromonte, a nicely designed museum demonstrating traditional life in the area. Here's a typical home, 3 rooms cut into the hillside...

The kitchen was either the front room, closest to the door for light and ventilation, or in a separate cave, but in this example was now the sewing room, how perfect is that!

During the Thursday tour we also visited a "Carmen", which is a term used for a villa behind a wall with a garden. These are the gardens of the Carmen de la Victoria which belongs to the University of Granada and is accommodation for visiting scholars. A fabulous pergola of Cyprus trees trained over an iron frame:

Carmen gardens almost always include pyramidal cedars (so when looking at the Albaicín neighbourhood from a distance you can tell where the carmens are by the cedars)...

...fruit and nut trees, and a formal garden laid out with low hedges and paving stones...

Granada, Day Two

Wednesday in Granada...we had a slow start to the day. Didn't get outside until close to 10:30 after a FULL cooked breakfast (something Lloyd has been dreaming of) and of course cleaning up the kitchen. We have grown tired of the usual breakfast fare around the Mediterranean...can't take all that sugar and white flour on a steady basis. These folk sure like their pastries! (So do we but not every day)

We decided to wander around the parts of the Alhambra that are open without a ticket, which turns out to be not a lot. However our wanderings did serve as a useful orientation for our full visit to the site tomorrow (Friday). We left the hotel, walking along the less busy street behind, to the Plaza Nueva. This plaza is actually quite old in comparison to others, being established in the early years of the Christian rule in Granada. The church at the end of the plaza (its bell tower was the minaret of the original mosque) marks the point where the river disappears underneath. 

Beyond that is a lovely narrow valley with houses on the left, and the Alhambra above on the right.

There are lots of old properties for sale. Lloyd poked his camera through a broken shutter...this is typical of old Mediterranean homes built around a central courtyard, a style that goes back to Roman times.

We walked up the river valley and then over and up to the Alhambra. We were able to go inside the Palacio de Carlos V (Palace of Charles V), a monumental building that is square on the outside and round in the middle, open to the air. 

Construction started in the mid 1500s but was left unfinished for centuries. The roof was finally completed in the early 20th C. Intriguing are the pillars and balustrades carved out of local conglomerate.

The Puerta de la Justica (Gate of Justice) through which free entrance is gained to the grounds. The outer gate:

The zig-zag interior:

Inside the grounds:

A "Spanglish" sign...(we haven't seen as much of this as we did in Asia)

 

A view of the Albaicín district of Granada. This was the site of the original Moorish settlement in the 800s. The streets are still narrow and winding.

A view of the Sierra Nevada

Down below, towards the centre of town, I noticed this receptacle for old clothing..."Know that your used clothing is the fabric of life".