Generalife in the Alhambra and Granada

A guest post by my husband, Roy Mathias

Palacio de Generalife was the Nasrid rulers’ summer palace. When asking for directions, do remember that the “G” is pronounced as an “H”.

Generalife is literally, “Architect’s Garden”.   Approaching the palace, one passes through extensive formal gardens.  As it was winter, we say only the evergreen hedges that partitioned the garden into rooms, and the wonderful walkways paved in traditional Granadian style with a mosaic of pebbles: white ones from the River Darro and black ones from the River Genil.  These two rivers run on either side of the Alhambra.

Here the black stones are placed on their sides to create the impression of a knotted rope or wood grain.

Here you can see the “rooms”.

This one is from the steps of church in Granada.  The greenish tinge is moss and other plants growing in the cracks.

One inside the palace,  the architecture is similar to the Nasrid palace, though not as spectacular.

Irene in the summer palacePerhaps winter is not the best time to see the summer palace!

View from a room onto the gardens — persimmons in fruit.

Flowing water played a prominent role in the architecture.  There was very steep path, paved in the usual black and white cobbled style.  Enery so ofter there was a wider area with a fountain.  On top of the wall, the “hand rail” is actually a water channel with flowing water.

Here you see the cobbles, the fountain, the water flowing in the “hand rail” and the steepness of the path.

Here are some other pictures from Granada.  We stayed  in the Albayzín area, which together with the Alhambra  comprises the UNESCO world heritage site in Granada.  Albayzín is a very very steep, and contains a number of gypsy caves.  In the summer these are a center for flamenco and out door cafes.   Here is  the courtyard from  the pedestrian area at the top of Albayzín.

World heritage or not, you just can’t escape Coke.

These houses are in the “Gypsy area”.   The so called caves, are now normal houses with electricity and ventilation built into the hillside.

A church courtyard.

The River Darro is just a scruffy stream, perhaps 10 feet across.