La Alhambra

This is the Albaicin - the old arab city, lots of fun markets and teterias (tea shops) here.

Well my pictures don't really do this place justice. It is absolutely stunning. La Alhambra is an old sultan fortress and palace built when the arabs ruled the southern part of Spain. The arab sultan used to live here. When Fernando and Isabel conquered Andalusia in 1492, this palace became there's.

The entire place was built as both a military base and a palace, and although the military base is only one fourth of it, from the outside, all of it looks like a military base. It is very plain on the outside and huge - this was to scare off attacks. Inside, the detailing is more intricate than anything else I've seen. It's absolutely beautiful. There are gardens and fountains and beautiful rooms. In almost any place in the Alhambra, you can here running water. This is because Arabs loved the sound. The water was brought here by a series of acuaducts (for lack of a better word) starting in the Sierra Nevadas. They still work today to bring water to the palace and many different fountains in Granada.

I guess there are secret, large passageways that lead out of the Alhambra to many different places in the city. When the French army invaded Granada (I do not remember what year), they were caught unaware and defeated because of these passageways. Still funcional and useful in a battle hundreds and hundreds of years later.