Jane's adventures
This blog is about my travels. At home in New Zealand, in other parts of Oceania, North, Central and South America and in Europe.
Alhambra, the famous Islamic castle. The history of the Iberian peninsula over the past thousand years involved successive waves of conquest and reconquest, back and north between the Islamic (also called Moorish) and Christian forces. During the period of Islamic rule, what is now called Spain was called Al-Andalus. The beautiful palace of Alhambra was built during this time. It's difficult to get tickets to visit, so if you are considering going there, whatever you do, book your tickets well ahead of time. The first place we headed was to the beautiful palace gardens. The gardens are kept as they were and in Islamic style they are designed for the five senses, there are scented plants and flowers, edible plants as well as ornamental ones, and trickling water that you can hear bubbling away. We headed in to the gates of Alhambra, past the special cordoned off entrance for the lucky few who got tickets to enter the palace. I was quietly congratulating myself for managing to get a ticket ahead of time. The palace of Alhambra was reconquered around 1500AD, and so some of the interior of Alhambra has some christian influence. Fortunately, however, this beautiful palace has largely been left as it was constructed. As you can see, the beauty of Alhambra was mind blowing. I love the subtleties of the Islamic artistic style. There are no representative forms (in general - although there are a few exceptions in Alhambra) and instead there is an emphasis on form and light. It really is a truly incredible place. We also passed the hamman - a series of spas used before prayers that were of course, shut down once the reconquest arrived.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Author
I am a traveller from New Zealand. My blog is to inform friends and family about my adventures. I hope you enjoy it! Archives
August 2020
Categories
|