Another beautiful day and good morning!
First task on arriving is finding a parking space there's four or five car
parks a tip on the parking the closest to the walking to the entrance to the
La Alhambra is parking one then two and three and four and five is a bit of a
walk away so obviously you want to park as close as possible save your walking
because you're gonna do plenty walking here now if you've actually come by bus
and you don't have a car it is actually still fairly easy to get to La
Alhambra from the city center there is a shuttle bus that runs about every 10
minutes throughout the day cost 1 euros 50 each way and only takes about five
minutes you can also if you're enthusiastic walk up but it is all
uphill what I recommend is you either drive or get the bus up spend your day
there and then wander your way through the gardens on the way down but now into
La Alhambra which note is Spain's biggest tourist attraction attracting 60
million visitors every year that is a lot of people and a lot of them come in
the busy summer season so a tip is to book your tickets online in advance for
the busy period sometimes you have to do weeks and advance to get a ticket eat
you're very lucky to turn up in the busy season to just turn up and get a ticket
to go in during the day so what you do is you can go online on their website
I'll try and remember to link it below for you and you can actually pick
a time slot as to when you want to go into palaces and then you skip all the
queues you just go in at your time slot and you get in so that is well worth
doing it doesn't cost any extra just a little bit of planning so a little bit
about the history of la Alhambra and this area in the year 711 the Muslim
Moors of North Africa came across the Straits of Gibraltar and invaded the
Iberian Peninsula and for the next seven hundred years while the rest of Europe
slumbered through the Middle Ages this part of Spain
prospered and studied the Greek philosophers art maths medicine science
in ways that still influence Europe today and the center of that Moorish
Empire at that time was that la Alhambra the last and greatest Moorish palace
it's a huge architectural masterpiece but you can easily spend a whole day
just wandering around and enjoyed there is so much to see here I'll try and take
you through the highlights but there is much much more than I could possibly
show you here there's the beautiful gardens or reflecting pools intricately
carved ceilings amazing designs in calligraphy pillared courtyards throne
rooms and there is the fort as well which is actually the oldest part of la
alhambra we are going to head straight into the palaces now all the palaces the
nasrid palaces were constructed in the 14th century by yusuf the first and his
son and it's their residence the place of business for ceremonies and
entertainment from the center of the moorish empire all the rooms are
designed to maximize use of light and space and covered with amazing and
intricate decorations now the first area you come to as you
enter the Nasrid palaces is the Mexuar hall now this was used by the high
officials to conduct business and judicial meetings with the public now
let's have a look at the decorations in this room because they are quite amazing
around you will see the most amazing calligraphy that has written on the wall
on the walls one phrase stands out is written 9,000 times in total throughout
the palace and that is God is the only victor also on the wall around this room
you will see tessellation patterns on the tiles now these are amazing designs
it's they're very simple designs to begin with that are overlaid interlocked
replicated until they produce this most stunning mosaic design
this intricate design is meant to represent the complexity and the
infinity of the universe that we live in mimicking patterns found in nature they
are amazing representation of a balance of art maths
and religion now they inspired MC Escher the famous artist when he visited the
la Alhambra in the 1920s he drew a lot of these designs and you can see a lot of the
effect in his work moving out of that you then go into the next area which is
the court of the golden room which is a sort of dividing area between the public
areas of the palace and the more private areas again you've got more of these
amazing elaborate designs and you've also got these twin doors that exit the
room that are meant to confuse potential assailants because one used to lead to a
dead end and only one went to the palace but when you go through the correct one
you then enter the Comares Palace this was the official residence
of the king and the palace that was used for important ceremonies now the Sultan
wanted to astonish and intimidate his visitors so he had the palace lavishly
decorated with the most elaborate designs possible now the first main room
you come to is the hall of the ambassador's or the throne room now this
is the largest room in the whole palace and where the Sultan would greet his
important ambassadors and visitors now his seat was placed in an alcove with
beautiful decorations and a wooden lattice behind where the light would
flood in behind him and produce this dramatic powerful silhouette which would
intimidate the visitors while the ceiling above is one of the most amazing
jigsaw puzzles you will ever see it is constructed out of 8,000 pieces of cedar
wood and it is perfectly and symmetrically put together and it
represents the seven heavens of paradise with Allah's throne into the center as you
pass through the Hall of Ambassadors and deep into the palace the next place you
come to is myrtles court now this is a
beautiful smallish garden with a stunning reflecting pool in which gives a nice
peaceful calm area now from there you then go past the reflecting pool and
you'll then into the palace of the Lions which is a much more intimate area of la
Alhambra and reflects a sort of later era sort of Christian esque type design
in there much simpler naturalistic design columns and pillars dominate this
area and in the central courtyard you will find twelve lions supporting a
fountain and the lions are sports spouting water into four channels that
represent the four rivers of paradise now as you enter this area you will see
some some more geometric designs carved into the walls now these are called
moçárabe and they're similar to a honeycomb design very complex
now as you leave on the other side you will see more moçárabes (sorry)
which are hanging down against slightly geometric honeycomb design but hang down
and they resemble stalactites sort of an entrance and exit into the area now on
the south of here you have the Hall of the Abencerrajes now this is named
after a group of knights that were murdered in this room but you have one
of the most amazing ceilings you have ever seen and we've seen some amazing
ceilings already but if you look up you will see these intricate designs
creating this amazing star shape dome and the way it's put together and hangs
down it seems to float above you and as you exit the palaces at this point you
will then come to another beautiful reflecting pool with five arches
overlooking it and a beautifully kept garden which you could really spend
hours wandering around now as you're ambling around all these areas you'll
also find this huge Renaissance building slap bang in the middle of the property
it looks completely out of place in design and that is because when king
charles v finally drove the Moors out of Spain, and la alhambra was their
last stronghold he then built this huge palace the most lavish
palace that Spain has ever seen right in the middle to dominate his authority
over it so there we have there is a little summary of some of the highlights
of Spain's biggest visited tourist attraction and it is fantastic so if
you're going there and you want some information let me know I hope you've
enjoyed this this a little bit different from my normal videos but I
wanted to give you a little insight to the la Alhambra and it's history hope
you've enjoyed this
let's pay for parking let's put it in English
insert ticket, okay
Nine Euros eighty! oh my goodness
look at that 9 euros 80 for hours and ..... oh dear
yes definitely want a receipt
whoopee let's get my change, 20 cents
I didn't get my receipt though
oh my goodness
Oh as we found out within
er, where were we? Cordoba other day sometimes the parking can sting you more
then well, that was more than it cost me to go into Alhambra but there we go