Destination 6 - Alhambra, Spain, Granada

The Alhambra is , in a unifying sense. A hyphenated place. The palace-fort in southern Spain is an Arab-European. Moslem-Christian melting pot. Its sprawl of small interlocking spaces reveals that paradise on earth may not necessarily be a contradiction in terms. An architectural realization of an earth-paradise is what the 14th century Nasrid craftsmen had in mind when they enclosed a complex of domestic buildings within a set of fortifications. Moorish towers looked out over Spain and in on an evolving maze of buildings clustered around quadrangles of varying sizes and joined into a whole with alleyways and sub-courtyards. Everywhere trees and flowers rub against formalized decorative foliage.

Stilt arches, columns, domes and muqarna-stalactite ceilings give a distinctive non-European feel. Walls and floors are covered with painted tiles of intertwined flowing patterns that echo that architectural complexity and suggest infinity. At the root of Alhambra's geometrical iconography is an Islamic conception of divine order. It follows the Mudejar style, which saw Western ideas influencing Arabic craftsmen who worked in isolation from the rest of Islam. The culture mix changed when eight centuries of Muslim rule over Granada ended in 1492. By 1527 Charles V has inserted a Renaissance palace, beginning a process of Italianate revisions that continued until Philips V's death in 1746. Spain's empire then dwindled and the Alhambra was neglected until 19th century.

A highlight of the complex is the Court of the Lions, a quadrangle where a central fountains play into an alabaster basin resting on the back of a dozen marbles lions. Galleries and pavilions enclose a space that seems under the benign guard of 124 slender columns. Blue and yellow tiled walls are framed in enamelled blue and gold. Colour and light defines the Alhambra. An unnamed Arab poet describe the exterior walls surrounding woodland as 'a pearl set in emeralds' and there is a kaleidoscopic richness to its appearance.

Court of the Lions

Alhambra

inside Alhambra