Overlooking the city
of Granada, The Alhambra is one of the most famous examples
of Moorish architecture in the world.
" On a hill overlooking Granada, the Alhambra—a sprawling palace-citadel
that comprised royal residential quarters, court complexes flanked by official
chambers, a bath, and a mosque—was begun in the thirteenth century by Ibn
al-Ahmar, founder of the Nasrid dynasty, and was continued by his successors
in the fourteenth century. Its most celebrated portions—a series of courtyards
surrounded by rooms—present a varied repertoire of Moorish arched, columnar,
and domical forms. The romantic imagination of centuries of visitors has been
captivated by the special combination of the slender columnar arcades, fountains,
and light-reflecting water basins found in those courtyards—the Lion Court
in particular; this combination is understood from inscriptions to be a physical
realization of descriptions of Paradise in Islamic poetry."
— Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman.
Architecture: from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. p219.
For more information see Alhambra.org |
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Alhambra Palace Ext.
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Alhambra Palace Int.
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