Alhambra
Granada, what a beautiful town set next to the Seirra Nevada mountains (no not cali, im in spain remember). Last night i went out with a few people and had my first sip of alcohol in about 2 weeks...yum. Today, i spent the morning chillin in a hammock...then ate some home-made piaia and spent the afternoon visiting granada´s premier attraction, the Alhambra. This is the last muslim stronghold in spain before they where driven back into morocco...architecture is beautiful.
One of the many buildings in the Alhambra
posted by Bartek Kunowski @ 12:08 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Bart: My wife and I spent several nights in the Alhambra on our honeymoon, went through it many times. The Islamic architecture is indeed beautiful, though you can't tell from the picture you posted -- it's one of the European structures that Charles V clobbered on top of the beautiful Islamic architecture after the Reconquista, destroying a wing of the original Alhambra. He also is famous for desecrating the Great Mosque in Cordoba.
There are so many great Alhambra stories. The last Muslim king of Granada, King Boabdil, on his retreat to the sea from the court of the Alhambra, one of the jewels of the Muslim empire and culture, that had stood in Spain for 800 [sic!] years, looked back from the last hill from which he could see his palace, and shed a tear in farewell. To which his mother, famously, replied: "Do not weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man!"
... and I thought my mother was tough!
That´s a great story. One of the downsides of a trip like mine is that i cant be taking tours or reading (heavy expensive) guide books for every site i visit. After i finish my trip, i think ill purchase a whole bunch of fat european history books :)
A comment about the picture. At the beginning of my trip, i made a consious effort to only post one picture per post...because i absolutely hate websites that flood you with too many pictures. Ive noticed that my pics end up falling into one of two camps. 1) corny pics (like me climbing a sand dune, or a swiss non smoking sign) or 2) pictures that im proud of for photogenic reasons. So i have plenty of pics of the Alhambra...but the one i posted is my fav from a photography standpoint.
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