A Few Reflections On The Breathtaking Alhambra

And The Challenges Of "Travel Writing"

The Alhambra does not lend itself, or herself, to photography, or to believing your eyes.

You could go crazy in there, if you began to really ask: How?

It’s a continuous flowing poem of “architecture” that can’t possibly have an explanation, or a story of being actually constructed, other than by magic of some sort—or is it just me?

Illustration from Tales Of The Alhambra; ”Hambra” means “red.”

Somehow, you’re not supposed to ask: “But… how?”

I feel it is understood that there is no answer.

(There are no answers to any questions…about “architecture.”)

Our guide, Angela, said something my Tartaria friends would have found interesting.

“We have no documentation of it being built.”

Rather, it is surmised, inferred—retroactively assumed to have been constructed by the known history of the Moorish kings associated with it.

Official History:

“The Alhambra (/ælˈhæmbrə/, Spanish: [aˈlambɾa]; Arabic: الْحَمْرَاء, romanized: al-ḥamrāʼ ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world, in addition to containing notable examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture.^[1][2][3]

The complex was begun in 1238 by Muhammad I Ibn al-Ahmar, the first Nasridemir and founder of the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state of Al-Andalus.^[3][4] It was built on the Sabika hill, an outcrop of the Sierra Nevada which had been the site of earlier fortresses and of the 11th-century palace of Samuel ibn Naghrillah.^[4][5] Later Nasrid rulers continuously modified the site. The most significant construction campaigns, which gave the royal palaces much of their defining character, took place in the 14th century during the reigns of Yusuf I and Muhammad V.^[6][7] After the conclusion of the Christian Reconquista in 1492, the site became the Royal Court of Ferdinand and Isabella (where Christopher Columbus received royal endorsement for his expedition), and the palaces were partially altered. In 1526, Charles V commissioned a new Renaissance-style palace in direct juxtaposition with the Nasrid palaces, but it was left uncompleted in the early 17th century. After being allowed to fall into disrepair for centuries, with its buildings occupied by squatters, the Alhambra was rediscovered following the defeat of Napoleon I, whose troops destroyed parts of the site. The rediscoverers were first British intellectuals and then other American and Northern European Romantic travellers. The most influential of them was Washington Irving, whose Tales of the Alhambra (1832) brought international attention to the site.^[8] The Alhambra was one of the first Islamic monuments to become the object of modern scientific study and has been the subject of numerous restorations since the 19th century.^[9][10] It is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[1]”

The walls are particularly impossible to believe, doubling as “epigraphic poems” which you can read about here.

One writer, who could read the walls, described it like this:

”Alhambra, like other Muslim historical sites in Andalucia, Spain, is covered in beautiful calligraphy and Islamic geometric art. The texts vary across the walls and rooms. A big proportion of it consists of verses from the Quran or religious phrases and sayings of the prophet Mohamed. But there is also a myriad of love songs, praise for the caliphate(s), and poems about life, beauty, and homeland.”

Article here.

If it weren't for Washington Irving, I would never have known the famous lions are not marvels of sculpture. In fact, he called them “miserable,” and felt certain they were made by Christians, which made me almost laugh when finally I saw them.

"In the centre stands the fountain famous in song and story. The alabaster basins still shed their diamond drops; the twelve lions which support them, and give the court its name, still cast forth crystal streams as in the days of Boabdil. The Lions, however, are unworthy of their fame, being of miserable sculpture, the work probably of some Christian captive.”

—Tales of The Alhambra, Washington Irving

Goodness, he was right. (Photo above.)

They’re downright weird looking.

But if Irving had not written that, would somebody else have? Is this apparent for anybody with any degree of sophistication about sculpture?

In the top photo, which is where we entered, you can see a gap. In this gap, it is said, they would pour down boiling oil on anybody identified as enemies, seeking to enter.

What a taxing doorman job that must have been.

Not easy to write about UNESCO world heritage sites. What can one possibly add to all that has been written?

All day every day since 1985 I have been writing about ugly, wretched, miserable things.

When challenged to describe something of impossible beauty and splendor, I sort of can’t. But what I can do is issue a challenge to us all—that we consider the final cost of only contemplating horrors all day long, never beauty.

The point is not that I am here, (in Granada) nor that you need me to inform you about any of this. The point is that I believe we need to pursue beauty, to climb and crawl our way back into the habit of witnessing, and responding to beauty.

That counts as defying the overlords of ugliness who seek dominion over our minds and souls.

But that’s not why we should do it.