Granada - Alhambra

It was rainy and cold the morning we tourned the Alhambra.  We had signed up for the tour about women's roles in Muslim Spain, and we were excited for the tour.  Our guide had a thick accent and was not as easy to understand as our previous guide (when Hollis and I went to Granada last year).  He was very knowledgeable, but got distracted by his knowledge that he actually failed to let us know about women's roles in Muslim Spain.  (I still learned a lot, but his tour assumed that you were already familiar with the Alhambra's history, so he wasn't the best guide.)

We learned that every living room in the Alhambra had a reflection pool, but the royalty had a key-shaped fountain that flowed into the pool.  The key symbolizes one of the keys to heaven (there are seven heavens and each requires a key, so the key/keyhole reappears continually in the architecture of the Alhambra).  I don't have any pictures of the key entrances, but this is one of the prettier reflection pools.

Another cool decorative motif is the tree of life.  I can't quite remember the story in Islam, but the symbolism was very similar to the Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life.

 

We also got to tour the winter quarters of Carlos V (or Carlos I of Spain).  The winter areas of the Alhambra are much smaller so that they can be heated.

The balcony, with Jason and Neoma.

The center of Carlos V's palace has several pillars.  They are all made from conglomerate rock, which is one of my favorite rocks.  It looks like man-made cement, but it is naturally occurring.  I think it is a beautiful rock.

 

Also, though most of the Alhambra is white, it originally was painted in many vivid colors.  Remnants of these colors are barely visible today.  I can only imagine how beautiful it would have been.  Below is a photo of some colors in a section of architecture that represents the cave where Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her that she would give birth to Christ.  The appearance of this ceiling design is the same as an Annuciation painting.

This is the Courtyard of the Lions.  It's been under restoration since I first visited in 2007.  The lions were removed and Hollis and I got to see them up close when we went last year, but now they are put back in the courtyard! They are almost done with the renovation! 

They installed a completely separate water system so they could prevent the lions from further corrosion.  The fountain used to be powered by gravity and rainwater.  The lions used to be a clock as well; the number of lions that had water flowing from their mouths corresponded to the hour.  However, after conquering the Alhambra, Spaniards pulled the fountain apart to see how it worked and couldn't put it back together properly.

But still!  I am so excited that I got to see the lions IN THEIR PATIO.

And i just really thought this tree was beautiful.

 

Jason and I are standing in front of the rather smallish people door in the Gates of Justice (the people door is small, the gates are huge).  This was the only entrance to the Alhambra when it was a fortress city.