The Alhambra

The short answer

The Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex on a hill above Granada, in Andalusia in southern Spain. Its name comes from the Arabic for “the red one”, after the colour of its walls. Muhammad I, founder of the Nasrid dynasty, began building in 1238, and the palaces that define it were built in the fourteenth century under Yusuf I and Muhammad V. The Nasrids were the last Muslim dynasty in Iberia; in January 1492 their last sultan surrendered Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella. The complex also holds the fortress of the Alcazaba, the Generalife gardens and a Renaissance palace begun for Charles V in 1527. UNESCO inscribed it in 1984.

Why it's worth knowing

Look closely at the carved plaster in the Nasrid palaces and much of what reads as pattern is writing. Some of it is the dynasty’s motto, repeated across the walls: And there is no victor but God. Much of the rest is poetry, composed by court poets, among them Ibn al-Jayyab, Ibn al-Khatib and Ibn Zamrak, and carved into the rooms it describes.

The unusual thing is the voice. In many of these poems the room speaks for itself, in the first person. The Patronato de la Alhambra, which manages the monument, publishes the poems of the Palace of the Lions room by room: the largest preserved poem in the Alhambra, twenty-four verses laid out symmetrically round the Hall of the Two Sisters, and a thirteen-verse poem framing the three windows of the Mirador de Lindaraja beyond it. The praise is not only for the room: in these poems the building’s beauty is offered up as tribute to the sultan who built it.

The Court of the Lions goes one step further. Its fountain is a marble basin carried on the backs of twelve marble lions, and round the basin’s rim run verses by Ibn Zamrak, taken from a much longer poem, that describe the palace, the fountain and how its water moves. A visitor can stand at the fountain and read, in translation, an account of the thing in front of them written by the poet of the court that built it. The building carries its own description, carved into the object described.

The palaces in plan

The page walks from the fortress through the courts to the gardens. Laid out in the order it names them, the parts of the Alhambra line up.

Swipe the drawing to see it all, fortress to gardens

1. 1The Alcazaba. The towers of the Alcazaba, the fortress of the complex.
2. 2The Patio de los Arrayanes. The Patio de los Arrayanes in the Nasrid palaces, its long pool reflecting the arcaded portico.
3. 3The Hall of the Two Sisters. The largest preserved poem in the Alhambra, twenty-four verses laid out symmetrically round the Hall of the Two Sisters.
4. 4The Mirador de Lindaraja. A thirteen-verse poem framing the three windows of the Mirador de Lindaraja beyond it.
5. 5The Court of the Lions. Its fountain is a marble basin carried on the backs of twelve marble lions.
6. 6The Palace of Charles V. Charles V’s palace was begun in its midst in 1527 and left incomplete after 1637.
7. 7The Generalife. The Generalife gardens from above, clipped hedges and cypresses below one of the old towers.

A plan drawn as a diagram: nothing is placed or sized as on a survey.

The field notes

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Ibn Zamrak, and the court's poets

Ibn Zamrak lived from 1333 to 1393 and was poet and statesman at the court of Muhammad V, the sultan who built the Palace of the Lions. Some of his poems still decorate the Alhambra’s fountains as well as its walls.

The verses on the Lions fountain, according to the Patronato, belong to a poem of 146 verses by Ibn Zamrak that begins in the Hall of the Two Sisters. Carved round the rim, they describe the palace, the fountain and how it worked, and the Patronato’s researchers have used them to work out how the fountain was built and what it meant.

Because the inscriptions are in Arabic and many visitors cannot read them, the building’s most important layer is the one most often walked past. Guides and the monument’s own publications translate them, and reading one before entering a room changes what the room is.

Twelve lions, one basin, a long restoration

The twelve lions and the basin are carved from white marble from Macael, in Almería, and the basin from a single block. The basin once carried painted detail, since lost to centuries of cleaning.

In 1956 the historian Frederick Bargebuhr proposed that the lions came from an eleventh-century palace of the Jewish vizier Samuel ibn Naghrillah. The theory has since been challenged or refuted by many scholars, largely because the sculptures’ style matches fourteenth-century Nasrid work.

The Patronato restored the lions and the fountain between 2007 and 2010. While archaeologists worked on the courtyard, from 2010 to 2012, the twelve lions were shown in the crypt of the Palace of Charles V, until November 2011; the work finished in 2012 with the court repaved in Macael marble. The restoration won a European Heritage Award from Europa Nostra.

All seventeen? The symmetry question

A claim repeated in guidebooks and mathematics classrooms is that the Alhambra’s tilework contains all seventeen wallpaper groups, the complete set of ways a pattern can repeat across a flat surface. The claim is contested, and the disagreement is instructive.

Edith Müller’s 1944 doctoral thesis at Zürich reported eleven. In 1986 Branko Grünbaum, Zdenka Grünbaum and G. C. Shephard reported examples of at most thirteen. A year later R. Pérez-Gómez and J. M. Montesinos reported finding the missing groups. In a 2006 article in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Grünbaum challenged those findings and asked for the patterns to be classified in a consistent, well-explained way, by explicit criteria. Other researchers who take the colours of the tiles into account, and not only their shapes, report all seventeen.

A good mystery: how many of the seventeen wallpaper groups the walls hold

Edith Müller, 1944

Eleven.

Grünbaum, Grünbaum and Shephard, 1986

At most thirteen.

Pérez-Gómez and Montesinos, a year later

The missing groups found.

Counts that take the tiles’ colours into account

All seventeen.

So the fair statement is that the Alhambra’s patterns are extraordinarily rich, and that whether they contain all seventeen groups depends on the rules of counting, on which mathematicians disagree. Anyone who says flatly that it does, or that it does not, has chosen a side.

Ruin, a book, and repair

After 1492 the Alhambra passed to the Catholic Monarchs, and Charles V’s palace was begun in its midst in 1527 and left incomplete after 1637. Neglect followed. French troops occupying Granada from 1810 to 1812 did severe damage and blew up eight towers; José García is credited with disabling the remaining fuses.

Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra, published in 1832 after he had lived in the palace, brought it international attention, and restoration followed through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A relic from the Alhambra

Getting there

How to get there. Trains run to Granada from Madrid and other Spanish cities.

Book the palace entry first. Visits to the Nasrid Palaces are by timed ticket: each ticket carries a half-hour entry slot for the palaces, and if you miss it you cannot enter them that day. Visitor numbers are capped, and tickets for spring and holiday periods sell out weeks ahead. Buy through the Patronato de la Alhambra’s official ticket site, check the current conditions and prices there, and plan the rest of the day, the Alcazaba and the Generalife, around your slot.

Current access. The Patronato’s visitor notice, read on 22 October 2026, says the Alcazaba has reopened on an itinerary adapted to safety and conservation needs, which may change, and that two of the Andalusí monuments it runs in the city below, the Casa Horno de Oro and the Palacio de Dar al-Horra, remain closed for safety reasons. Its press release of 29 September 2026 announced the reopening.

When to go. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable; July and August in Granada are very hot. The first and last slots of the day are the least crowded.

For the view. Walk up through the Albaicín, the old quarter on the facing hill, to the Mirador de San Nicolás at sunset, and look back across the valley at the whole of it, with the Sierra Nevada behind.

Common questions

What is the Alhambra?

The Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex above Granada in Andalusia, Spain, built chiefly by the Nasrid dynasty, the last Muslim dynasty in Iberia, between 1238 and 1492. It includes the Nasrid palaces, the Alcazaba fortress, the Generalife gardens and the Renaissance Palace of Charles V. UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1984.

What do the inscriptions in the Alhambra say?

Many of the Alhambra’s inscriptions repeat the Nasrid motto, “And there is no victor but God”. Many others are poems by court poets including Ibn al-Jayyab, Ibn al-Khatib and Ibn Zamrak, carved into the plaster of the rooms they describe, and in many of them the room speaks in the first person, praising itself and the sultan who built it.

What is written on the Fountain of the Lions?

The rim of the Fountain of the Lions in the Alhambra carries verses by the Nasrid court poet Ibn Zamrak, part of a 146-verse poem that, according to the Patronato de la Alhambra, begins in the Hall of the Two Sisters. The verses describe the palace, the fountain and how it worked, and they carry praise of Muhammad V, the sultan who built the palace.

Does the Alhambra contain all 17 wallpaper symmetry groups?

It is disputed. Edith Müller’s 1944 study reported 11 in the Alhambra; Grünbaum, Grünbaum and Shephard reported at most 13 in 1986; Pérez-Gómez and Montesinos reported finding the rest in 1987. In 2006 Branko Grünbaum challenged that result and called for classification by explicit criteria; counts that take tile colour into account reach 17.

How old are the lions of the Alhambra’s Fountain of the Lions?

Most scholars date the twelve marble lions of the Alhambra’s Court of the Lions to the fourteenth century and the reign of Muhammad V, on grounds of their Nasrid style. A 1956 theory by Frederick Bargebuhr that they came from an eleventh-century palace of the vizier Samuel ibn Naghrillah has since been challenged or refuted by many scholars.

When did the Alhambra fall?

In January 1492 the last Nasrid sultan of Granada surrendered the city and the Alhambra to the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, without a direct assault on the palace. The monarchs stayed at the Alhambra for several months, during which Christopher Columbus received their approval for his Atlantic voyage.

Do you need to book tickets for the Alhambra?

Yes, in practice. Visitor numbers to the Alhambra are capped, and entry to the Nasrid Palaces is by a timed ticket with a half-hour slot that cannot be moved on the day. Tickets sell out weeks ahead in spring and holiday periods. The official seller is the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife.

What did Washington Irving have to do with the Alhambra?

The American writer Washington Irving lived in the Alhambra and published Tales of the Alhambra in 1832. The book drew international attention to the neglected palace, which French troops had damaged in 1810 to 1812, and Wikipedia’s account credits it with prompting the restorations that followed.