the alhambra

I got a ticket! I woke before the light and made my way up the hill, behind the hostel to the Alhambra ticket office in the near-dark, avoiding gypsies at every corner. Although it was Monday, and 7:30, I had to take a place at the end of a 50-foot queue. Tickets were already running low by the time I made it to the window, nearly two hours later, and I worried that I would once again miss my chance. As my turn approached the window, I mustered up my hope, nerve, and Spanish skills and said, “Uno, por favor.” And the ticket seller shook her head with a wry smile.

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Scoring a ticket was actually a lot easier than I had expected, and had experienced the day before. My wait was probably not even ten minutes and there were plenty available to enter the Nazrid Palace, the Alhambra’s most elaborate edifice, almost right away.

The Alhambra is an ancient Arabic palace. I think it may even be the greatest Arabic palace in Europe. And as they’d done with every Islamic stronghold, the Catholic conquerors promptly turned the place into a Christian bastion,
building a new palace in the center of the fortress, and adding Christian icons to the adornments. Despite this, however, much of the original Arabic character remains and attracts thousands of visitors each day.


On my last morning in Granada, a fog had settled on the city. “Oh, great,” I thought. My chance to see this great monument and stroll through its gardens was shrouded in mist. But I think this only managed to heighten the oriental mystique of the Alhambra.

A great, stone wall, studded with soaring towers, surrounds the entire structure and makes the drop into the forested valley below appear even more sheer.
It was through this hazy forest I had to walk first, before I entered at the Generalife, or Architect’s Garden. But my first destination once inside was the Nazrid Palace.


Here is where most of the Alhambra’s noted wonders are housed. One needn’t go far within, however, to find the elaborate facades that are this place’s trademark. Doorways, windows, and walls are covered in intricately carved limestone. Minute swirls, blocked floral patterns, and Arabic script are tessellated from corner-to-perfectly-proportione-corner. Look up, and see the carved wooden ceilings, gilded and painted in stars and built into cupolas, giving the lower-ceilinged rooms the appearance of loft. From the windows, I gazed out onto the cloud-obscured city far below, as its Muslim, and later, Christian rulers and their guests did for hundreds of years.

Some of the monument was under restoration, so the famed Court of Lions and Sala de los Reyes were not able to be seen in their original splendor. The twelve carved lions that support the fountain at the center of the patio, inspiration to so many past visitors, were in a museum somewhere, meticulously being cleaned and fleshed-out for their return. The painted leather ceilings of the Sala were also blocked from view, by both scaffolding and great shrouds.
Perhaps they, too, had been dismantled and take to another place to be carefully restored. Or maybe the work is being done right there, unknown to the multitude of sight-seers that pass by the door everyday. Nonetheless, the patio was striking with the slender marble columns supporting the porch that surrounds the great basin, and the fountains and rivulets that feed the main central font.


I continued outside to the Genaralife, the Architect’s Garden, and here I met the full impact of the fog. Birds singing in the invisible surroundings gave me the feeling of being trapped in a rain forest. Although the monument’s grounds were probably crowded, I had the impression of being alone, left to enjoy the garden’s hidden beauty in the solitude of the mist. In the right season, I would’ve seen all kinds of flowers in bloom, colors and textures everywhere. But even this winter garden was stunning in its lush greenery and droves of fountains. Hedges led me through the fog in a kind of maze, as I made my way out of the Alhambra, back into the forest in the middle of this mysterious city.