The Alhambra, Granada

I sit in a courtyard created by two white-plaster walls topped with faded-red tiles, a wall of round stones embedded in adobe and a fourth wall painted burnt sienna. A thick, gnarled-trunk tree spreads its limbs and leaves from wall to wall, providing a canopy above the brick and stone-tile floor, the dozen tile-topped tables, the wicker barrel-chairs. I am in the center of Hotel America, a modest but pleasant inn, in the center of the grounds which comprise the famous Alhambra ("red fort").

Two fountains splash and sing, sparrows swoop in for a look, a discordant bell rings from one of the nearby watch towers until it tires of its own annoying clang and slows to a stop. I have eaten a typical breakfast: pan tostada (toasted roll), plain yogurt served with a piece of whole fruit (pear, banana, nectarine), a small glass of jugo de manzana (apple juice) and cafe con leche (strong coffee and hot milk). I sit alone in a place some 2 million visitors a year deem worthy of pilgrimage, surrounded by richly-patterned history.

Last night I visited the Nazaries Palace, the most famous structure on the Alhambra grounds which include a fortress, the gardens and houses of the Generalife ("heneral-leaf-ay"), numerous watch towers, the Palace of Charles V, a bathhouse, some curio shops, the most-expensive Parador in Spain, and Hotel America. The grounds are enormous and confusing. Ticket sales are at one end, entrances at another, and you must be prepared to walk up and down steep inclines and many steps to experience the Alhambra. Explanations and signs are few and far between.

With a special ticket to enter at a precise hour, allowing only 400 people at a time, the Nazaries Palace is lit inside at night by strategically-placed spotlights, but it remains quite dark to give a sense of the mystery, the serenity of the still pools surrounded by delicate arches and box hedges, the magnificence of the scale of genius of Moorish architecture, and the fact that every square inch of the walls is decorated, carved with flowing Arabic letters and an endless number of geometric designs. During the day, although admission is still controlled, the whole of the Alhambra is overrun with tourists, giving it a somewhat Disneyland feel.

This was the palace of Ibn al-Ahmar who, in 1238, became the first Nasrid sultan and the only Muslim governor in the Iberian peninsula after swearing allegiance to King Fernando III and formed the Kingdom of Granada. By this date, the Muslim empire was in decline but Ibn al-Amar found an old fortress on the hill and transformed it into the most important legacy of Muslim Spain.

There was a lot of paranoia in the Nasrid kingdom and the palace was built to baffle, with designs of twists and turns and secret passageways, not only ostensible enemies but people within their own ranks. The kingdom fell apart after 1492 and the Alhambra fell into ruin. It was "discovered" and made popular by Washington Irving, Victor Hugo, Chateaubriand and others who made up fabulous romantic stories about it, which form the basis of much of today's popularity.

There is much more that could be written, and has been, about it. But, for now, enjoy the images...