Spain Continued...The Alhambra

So this was my favorite day.  Seeing the Alhambra was on my list of things to do before I die (Now checked off).  Friends, I can't really put the experience into words, but it was amazing.  This entire place was created for beauty.  I've posted some pictures, but they could never do the Alhambra justice.  If you ever have the chance, this is a definite place to see.  I feel so fortunate to have experienced the courtyard of the myrtles and the hall of the two sisters for myself, and even better to share the experience with my family.  Of course, I bought a guidebook the previous day (after the failed attempt to get in) and studied it the night before.  I know, I'm a nerd, but I like to know stuff!  I found this description of the Alhambra via the guys at google...

"On a hill overlooking Granada, the Alhambra—a sprawling palace-citadel that comprised royal residential quarters, court complexes flanked by official chambers, a bath, and a mosque—was begun in the thirteenth century by Ibn al-Ahmar, founder of the Nasrid dynasty, and was continued by his successors in the fourteenth century. Its most celebrated portions—a series of courtyards surrounded by rooms—present a varied repetoire of Moorish arched, columnar, and domical forms. The romantic imagination of centuries of visitors has been captivated by the special combination of the slender columnar arcades, fountains, and light-reflecting water basins found in those courtyards—the Lion Court in particular; this combination is understood from inscriptions to be a physical realization of descriptions of Paradise in Islamic poetry."

— Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture: from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. p219.