Europe 2008 Part 31

The Alhambra

Here is a map of the central part of the city of Granada to enable you to get your bearings for the sites we are talking of in the last and the next few posts. The map is from our Guide-book, Granada and the Alhambra, published by Ediciones Miguel Sanchez; beautiful pictures and stunning detail!

 

 

You will see the Alhambra in the top right of the map, and we will come back to that in a minute.

 

The area to the west of the Alhambra and north of Calle de Elvira is the Albaycin. Parallel to the Calle de Elvira is the Gran Via de Colon, where our hostel was situated (about where the "de" is printed).

 

Number 27 is the Cathedral I wrote about yesterday, and just south of it is the Plaza Bib-Rambla, the old centre of the city. Just to the east is the Puerta Real (Royal Gate), the centre of the modern business district.

 

The railway station is in the bottom left-hand corner.

 

 

This is the view of the wall of the Alhambra from the valley about where No 9 is shown on the map.

 

The Alhambra is one of the most visited sites in the world. We spent five hours there on a stunningly gorgeous day.

 

It is a series of palaces and fortifications built mostly during the last centuries of Moorish rule in that part of Spain and carefully restored during the last 150 years by the Spanish Government.

 

 

The only comparable site from our experience is the Taj Mahal.

 

If I had to choose one to be retained and the other lost, I would keep the Alhambra rather than the Taj.

 

The Taj represents one building, extensive though it may be, designed and built at one time by one ruler. The Alhambra is a series built over a longer period by Moorish and European rulers.

 

The Taj shows us one magnificent style, the Alhambra combines several.

 

The Taj is purely a memorial, the Alhambra was a living, humming fortress, palace, and seat of everyday government.

And the Alhambra is mostly several centuries older than the Taj.