Granada
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Fountain
Bare Trees
Drip Drip
Splish, Spash
Courtyard
High Hedges

Almost unrivalled for beauty and architectural splendour, the Alhambra Palace has been declared a national monument.  It lies at the foot of Spain´s Sierra Nevada mountain range.  The city of Alhambra was founded under the Visigoths, whose domination ended with the Arab victory in 711.  Alhambra (Granada was just a nearby settlement) was ruled by a viceroy dependent upon Córdoba until the fall of the Caliphate in Córdoba in 1031. During the next two centuries Granada was ruled by the Berber dynasty of the Almoravides and then Berber Almohades, until the first Nasrite king, Mohammed I, established a kingdom in 1241. After the capture of Córdoba by the Christian armies in 1236 the town increased in importance, reaching its brilliant zenith under the rule of the Moorish Nasrites, who were tolerated by the Castilian kings. It was the only surviving bastion of Islam in Spain until the last king of Granada had to relinquish the city to Ferdinand and Isabella at the treaty of Santa Fé in 1491. 

 

© Copyright 1997-2004 Barbara Boyles and Mark Boyles