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Granada Cathedral
Burial place of the Catholic Monarchs

THE KEYS TO PARADISE
Read how 700 years of Muslim rule in Spain came to an end

The Alhambra...
heaven on earth


The Koran continually repeats the idea that heaven is a garden with running water. From this perspective you could say that the Alhambra is an Arabic attempt to create heaven on earth.

 

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Andalucia Guide

The Alhambra, Boabdil's Last Stand

 

The last
days of a
great empire

Built around 1238 and 1358, in the reigns of Ibn al-Aḥmar, founder of the Naṣrid dynasty. In 1491, after years of wars between Christian and Muslim, Granada was the only Muslim-governed city left in Spain.

Boabdil…Abu `Abdallah Muhammad XII, last Nasrid ruler of Granada ended the Moorish presence by consenting to hold Granada in 1492 as a tributary kingdom under Ferdinand and Isabella, king and queen of Castile and Aragon.

The Alahambra, originally constructed as a small fortress in 889

 

Fairytale Palaces

The Alahambra was originally constructed as a small fortress in 889 and then largely ignored until its ruins were renovated and rebuilt in the mid 11th century. The Berber king, Badis ben Habus, built the current palace and walls, and it was later converted into a royal palace in 1333 by Yusuf I, Sultan of Granada.

The Alhambra's Islamic palaces were built for the last Muslim emirs in Spain and the court of the Nasrid dynasty. After the Reconquista by the Reyes Católicos ("Catholic Monarchs") in 1492, some portions were used by Christian rulers.

 

 

 

 

 

The palaces' decoration consists, as a rule, of Arabic inscriptions that are manipulated into sacred geometrical patterns wrought into arabesques. Painted tiles are largely used as paneling for the walls. The palace complex is designed in the Mudéjar style which is characteristic of western elements reinterpreted into Islamic forms, widely popular during the Reconquista. Read More

 

The Alhambra is considered by some to be one of the ten wonders of the world. It consists of gardens, fortifications and sumptuous palaces. It was the home of many of the Arabic Sultans who ruled the entire province and for centuries it received the optimum in interior decoration and architecture.

Paradise on Earth... The Garden of Generalife

Providing pleasure to the senses, colour, light, aromatic plants and a whisper of water. The Alhambra gardens offer a
paradise on earth in the Muslim culture... full of delights and pleasures where the man can achieve full satisfaction.

 

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