The Alhambra: The Most Stunning Moorish Castle, Granada, Spain

As I read a book about Queen Katherine of Aragon and listened to her describe the Alhambra my imagination went crazy. I pictured an amazing Moorish Castle that was just so brilliant that words could never do it justice. For years it sat in the back of my mind and I didn’t think much more about it until we decided to spend some time in Granada, Spain on our last trip. It was the number one place on my list to visit once the dates were confirmed. I went back to that story and I had pictures in my mind of what I thought it would look like but there was no way I would ever be able to picture its magnificence…even with an imagination like mine!

The Alhambra, Granada is a Moorish Castle dating back to around 889 AD where it was originally a Roman Fortification. After the construction was finished by the Romans is was basically left to fall apart and became a ruin. In the 13th Century, it was found by Moorish emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar of the Emirate of Granada. He is the one who is responsible for its current palace and walls but it was Yusuf I, Sultan of Granada who made it into a Royal Palace in around 1333.

We had purchased our Alhambra Palace tickets while we were still in Australia and they seemed to be burning a hole in our pockets. We were just so keen to get there. We could see the Moorish Castle high on the hill taunting us as we wandered the streets of Granada but it was not until our 2nd full day that we got to go up there. We walked down to the square at the end of Gran Via and we decided to catch a taxi up to the Alhambra Entrance rather than take the walk (neither of the girls was really interested in walking up there) The trip cost us a little over 5 Euro and it was well worth it. The winding streets made for a bit of a hairy ride at times! ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).