Sept. 28 The Alhambra

 I suppose I told everybody I talked with about my trip that my primary purpose for wanting to visit Spain was to see the Alhambra.  There is something about the Moorish decoration, so perfectly executed in such profusion and splendor, that there is probably no building that exists that could be described as being more ornate.  

When you visit the site, you enter the military area, and as you move through the rooms, halls, patios and gardens, the ornamentation becomes more and more luxurious until you finally reach the Sala de los Embajadores, then the two domed rooms of such fame.  The muqarnas domes are considered to represent the vaults of heaven, and perhaps no art form has been more successful. 

Following my visit, I went to a restaurant in the Albaicin quarter, the most Moorish area of Granada, found a recommended restaurant, and watched the sun go down, and the Alhambra in the distance glowing pink and then red.  I was at my loneliest at that moment, wishing with all my heart Susan could have shared that moment with me.  But we will make up our missed time together. 

The Puerto de la Justicia (Justice Gate)

The views over Granada are fantastic from the walls of the Alcazaba, the military fortress. 

Great view of Granada Cathedral.  The Royal Chapel, with the coffins of the kings and queens of Spain, mostly solid silver, is the small building at the very bottom left with multiple spires. 

Many houses in the old Moorish quarter follow the pattern found in Arab countries all over the world, with an enclosed courtyard and fountain.  

This is the south wall of the Cuarto Dorado (Golden Room), all gold filigree.

This is the first of three royal palaces you visit, the Mexuar

I am out of order, but this is the ceiling in the Sala de los Embajadores, (Hall of the Ambassadors).
The marquetry consists of 8,107 cedar pieces of different colors, fitted together in an extremely complicated Seven-level pattern of eith and sixteen-point stars, representing the seven heavens.

 

The Hall of the Ambassadors

Pario de los Arrayanes (Court of the Myrtles) an Iconic image of the Alhambra

The Patio de los Leones (Court of the Lions)

Sala de los Abencerrajes (Room of the Abencerrajes)
Named after a noble family whose members were murdered in this room.

The first of the great muqarnas domes

The Court of the Lions

And finally, the most sumptuous room in the entire complex, the 
Sala de las Dos Hermanas, named after two love-sick sisters who died of longing here. 
The massive muqarnas dome is considered one of the great works of Islamic art.   

Charles V castle, unfinished, quite beautiful renaissance building, but jarring given its setting. 

My final evening in Granada, sitting in a restaurant that looks over to the Alhambra, 
watching the light turn to gold and then pink, and finally red, 
appropriate to a building originally called the "Red Fort".