It is Friday 1 July at 5.00 pm and I'm still in the hotel lobby nursing my sore feet. Paul has gone upstairs to watch the tennis and start a new novel, and I'm just about to order a beer from the charming, always smiling and very, very dark skinned, 6 feet tall, 25 y.o. waiter - to sustain me through this email. Oh, life's hard!
The reason we drove all the way to Southern Spain was to see the Alhambra. I took over 200 photos of it yesterday, so it is quite a challenge to try to show you both the vast scope of the site, as well as the beautiful detail of the buildings and gardens.
First of all, the whole complex is on a hill and it takes the bus about 17 minutes to get you up to the main entrance, which is at the highest point of the hill. We got on the bus at about 10.30 am - it was already 34 degrees. From the main entrance you walk downhill, along terraces and walls, through gardens and huge courtyards for about 20 minutes to get to the furtherest area called Alcazaba, the oldest part of the Alhambra and the military area of the complex. Here is where the soldiers lived and trained, where the watch-towers and arsenals were. Oh, and of course, the prisons.
First of all, the whole complex is on a hill and it takes the bus about 17 minutes to get you up to the main entrance, which is at the highest point of the hill. We got on the bus at about 10.30 am - it was already 34 degrees. From the main entrance you walk downhill, along terraces and walls, through gardens and huge courtyards for about 20 minutes to get to the furtherest area called Alcazaba, the oldest part of the Alhambra and the military area of the complex. Here is where the soldiers lived and trained, where the watch-towers and arsenals were. Oh, and of course, the prisons.
Above, is the entrance to Alcazaba, dating from around 1250. And below are views along the walls and of the towers.
After leaving Alcazaba, the fort, we start walking back uphill towards the Nasrid Palaces.
To reach the palaces we had to pass through "the wine gate". This was where any merchant bringing goods into the city of the Alcazaba (the fort) or the city of the Alhambra (the royal residences) had to pay taxes. Paul is just about to pay his tax!
Each visitor is allowed one hour only inside the Nasrid palaces, beginning at a set time. Our time was 1.00 pm. Of course there are queues and I took these two photos of the garden of the first of the three Nasrid palaces, as we waited.
There are three palaces of the Nasrid dynasty, all built in different periods between 1237 and 1492. The best known is the Palace of the Lions, built around 1390. The last Nasrid Sultan surrendered La Alhambra to the Catholic (Christian) monarchs in 1492. It is unclear which palace you are in at any point of the visit as all three are joined together via courtyards and gardens, and I think they take you through the best of each palace to make up the tour.
In at last .... through this gate.
This is the first room we see. It is where the officials of the court would sort out who could proceed further and see the sultan (and later the king or queen), and who couldn't.
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Occasionally the sultan may have sat here, contemplating his city below and consulting his public servants.
But it is more likely that the sultan kept himself further within the building, allowing the political life of the court to be conducted in these corridors and courtyards of power.
The courtyards with pools were only available to the royal families, so we know we are now in the very inner sections of the palaces.
Although the water looks very green, it was very, very clear and cold with lots of healthy looking gold fish.
Beautiful ceilings and carved marble and stone arches with inlaid tiles.
And this is possibly the room in which Queen Isabella of Castille and King Ferdinand 1 of Aragon gave Christopher Columbus the go-ahead for his trip to the Americas.
Isabella and Ferdinand wrested political control from the Muslim dynasty on 2 January 1492. They then conducted extensive repairs and alterations to La Alhambra before installing their Royal House of the Kingdom of Granada.
Isabella and Ferdinand wrested political control from the Muslim dynasty on 2 January 1492. They then conducted extensive repairs and alterations to La Alhambra before installing their Royal House of the Kingdom of Granada.
The detailed stone carving was lovely - as was the tiling.
Detail of a panel.
The tiled ceiling.
All in this huge and airy public room with its nooks and crannies for loitering and plotting.
A courtyard ...
... another courtyard.
Another fabulous room. I think we just moved into the Palace of the Lions at this point. Can you see how the shapes have changed a bit - many more round shapes; more fluid, softer less angular forms.
This tiling was superb.
And another gorgeous courtyard. The architects were very good at capturing shade and creating cooling breezes through corridors and strategically placed colonades and windows.
Part 2 coming up.
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