The Alhambra Palace in Spain - one of the most important landmarks of Islamic architecture in Andalusia - receives millions of tourists annually, and provides them with the opportunity to see the nobility of Islamic architecture between the eighth and 14th centuries AD.

The palace, which was built on an area of ​​142 thousand square meters in the middle of the 13th century in Granada, the capital of the state of Beni al-Ahmar (Bani Nasr), has turned into an architectural symbol with its lush gardens and water pool in the middle of the courtyard, reflecting its harmony with the public structures.

The Alhambra, which its visitors describe as "a palace from the realm of mythical tales", contains many hand-made decorations, especially stone and woodwork, mosaics and ceramics.

Despite the neglect for many years, the building was able to continue to preserve its unique aesthetic and original decorations that reflect the beauty and antiquity of Andalusian architecture, and to remain as one of the treasures of Islamic architecture.

The Alhambra is on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List, and annually hosts millions of tourists from around the world.

Tour of Granada

The tour begins in the Alhambra Palace by visiting the part of the Kasbah or the military fortress, which is the area that was designated for soldiers and soldiers and storing weapons and equipment. The Kasbah is located in a part far from the place of the palaces of the sultans and princes, according to a report by Al Jazeera Net correspondent Etimad Belaid from Granada.

The forms of staircases, trenches, vaults, ceilings, and roofs, and even small houses which were set aside for the accommodation of soldiers enlisted in the service of the Sultan, are consistent with the purpose for which this part was built.

Above it, after a long basement of stairs, you reach the huge guard tower, and above it stood the flags of Spain, Granada, and the European Union, and on its edges all Granada seemed to lie below among the pines and poplars.

How many children of Al-Ahmar stood and recruited them here to look at Granada and its surroundings and its white houses with green bricks?!

Which is no longer the same as it was, all the neighborhoods have changed and only some of them remain on their originality, specifically the Al-Bayazin neighborhood.

What remained of Granada, Andalusia, became in the custody of those who did not know anything about the stories of those who built it and inhabited it.

You leave the Kasbah behind, and you join the palace area at the time specified in the entrance ticket, once again a feeling of awe envelops your heart as you step into the heart of the palaces of sultans and princes.

When Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar al-Nasri came, he found this place in ruins of a palace built by one of the kings of the sects, so he decided to build the Alhambra Palace, which was the nucleus of his kingdom.

Palace between the hill and the mountain

The palace is located between the high hill of Granada and the mountains of "Seranivada". Its palaces were built and its fortress was completed under the successive sultans and rulers over a period of approximately 150 years, starting from the year 749 AH. His palace, which included the luxurious ambassadors' hall, whose design was intended to reflect and consolidate the strength and immunity of Joseph I to his enemies, especially since he was negotiating with them in it.

The feeling of fascination and majesty follows you as you enter the palace, and you look up to the ceilings of the captivating Ambassadors’ Hall, where the stucco decorations and inscriptions are decorated with sentences and words glorifying God, foremost of which is the Nasrid slogan “There is no victor but God” that you find on most walls, doors and corners.

Even the arched windows here are very creative, some with Andalusian colored glass, and others have different artistic designs, allowing the passage of light rays reflected in pentagonal and hexagonal shapes that transform the leaking threads of light into aesthetic verses.

The scene was speaking by itself, as if he was saying I am an Arab, as if he was pulsing and calling, as Nizar Qabbani portrayed it in this house: “The decorations I can almost hear their pulse, and the trimmings on the ceilings are calling.”

The ceiling of the Royal Ambassadors Hall overlooking the houses of Granada is about 23 meters high, and it was designed from thousands of pieces of cedar wood, according to the design arts in Islamic architecture. To symbolize the power of Sultan Yusuf I.

The heyday of Islamic architecture

The architects of the Alhambra resorted to mathematics during their designs, in order to create a space that makes visitors feel the importance of the Sultan, and they enriched mathematics with new techniques as they excel in using accurate units of measurement, on which the construction of the Alhambra was designed as a whole.

In this part there is also the courtyard of the charming Basil and its famous water pool, in addition to the "Gamary Tower", which is the tallest building in the Alhambra.

The heyday of Islamic architecture that Andalusia witnessed during the reign of Sultan Yusuf I, and it was completed during the reign of Sultan Muhammad V, who built another palace considered the jewel of the Alhambra Palace. And golden and different, almost eye-catching.

The impressive Hall of the Two Sisters also leads from its southern door to the most famous wings of the palace, which is the Lions' Hall, looking at the 12 stone lions and wondering, how did these architects come together to create a similar masterpiece?

The water is still coming out of their mouths, although it is no longer in line with the times of prayer, night and day, as it was in the era of Bani al-Ahmar, because the Spaniards moved one of the lions in order to discover the technique adopted by the Andalusians, which harmonizes between the flow of water and the change of time, but they could not know Its mechanism of action, nor how to return it to its original condition.

The black was made of white alabaster, the same material that was later used during one of the palace restorations, to re-create the floor of the lobby, whose sides were planted with roses and basil in the days of Andalusia.

Like the rest of the palace walls and corners, the fountain of lions is also engraved with poems, as the poetry of the inscriptions was one of the flourishing Andalusian arts, so the fountains, walls and walls were embellished with beautiful poems.

The last Andalusian city

The custodians of the palace currently did not neglect to put a huge picture chronicling the scene of the two kings, Isabel and Ferdinand, receiving the letter of abdication of Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Saghir, the last king of Granada after a long siege, amid the arches and inscriptions, which still testify to the Arabism of the place. Indeed, a number of pots, lamps and manuscripts The tools and others were placed in a museum inside the palace, which is allowed to be visited and not to take pictures of what is inside.

On the far side of the Alhambra Palace is the Generalife’s Paradise, lush, extended gardens that impress and give rise to reassurance. They were created on this space. The first purpose of it was to be a space that pleased the onlookers, and brought joy to themselves, and secondly, for the cultivation of grains and vegetables, until it constituted the food of about 5,000 people. They lived inside the fortress of Granada.

Throughout Paradise, trees, types of flowers and dewy roses are scattered, and fresh water flows through fountains and canals, its mist flying in the sky, forming arches whose grains appear under the sun as if they are diamonds.

It was the custom of the Andalusians - who excelled in the techniques of extending canals and using water - to ensure the flow of water in order to preserve its purity, and therefore it is not surprising that you do not find in all the different uses of water in the Alhambra Palace, whether in irrigation, irrigation or in decoration, a stagnant stagnant or a stagnant pool or water shallow.

The alliance of the monarchs of "Castilian" and "Arachon" and the emergence of Spain, contributed to the precipitation of the fall of Granada, the last Muslim kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula in 1492 AD.

Then the new masters of the Alhambra Palace rushed to put their mark on it, so they turned the mosque that Muhammad bin Muhammad al-Nasri built inside the palace into a church, as they did with the rest of the city’s mosques, and they built the palace of King Carlos V next to the military castle, which is huge in the European style with a large circular area in the middle, despite Therefore, it does not receive the same attention from tourists and visitors as much as the Nasrid palaces.

They're in the thousands in place for the Alhambra.

And when you watch the palace in the evening at its base, from the Al-Bayazin neighborhood, you will glorify its beauty and red color, the sunset like a glowing ember.