Granada I - The Last Stronghold of Moors in Europe

Granada – The Last Stronghold of Moors in Europe.

• The Journey to the South began.

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Patio de los Arrayanes

After 5 hours of sitting on Alsa Bus from Madrid to Granada, I had arrived at Granada at 1:30am, due to the fact that I had missed the 6pm bus, I had to pay a fee of 5 euros to change to 9pm bus.

Perhaps, Granada was an ancient city so the bus center station was a little bit far from the city center. As a result, I had to take another public bus to reach my hostel; luckily there were still night public transportation in Granada.

I did the check-in quite late at midnight and had to pay another fee of late check-in (15 euros). Then, I jumped up on my bed and took a deep sleep. After all of these difficulties, I could have a rest finally.

It was such a long trip because I have been travelling from the beginning of June.

• Granada, the last stronghold of Muslims in Europe

Hola, Granada! Here I am.

Early morning, next day, my first job was to go Corral del Carbon, which was kind of an inn for businessmen in these old days (in Arabic, it is called: Alhóndiga or Inn meaning “Welcome all”. )

At that time, I spoke out:

- Oh my god, where am I?

- I am like in an Arab town in Middle East far away not a town in Europe.

The Gate of Corral del Carbon, the monument highly carved by Muslims artisans probably was the first Muslims building I had seen in the southern Spain, highly complicated decorations, Islamic Art, the gate in which Arabic businessmen from Middle East and North Africa used to stop here before starting trading gold and silk in this city.

• Booking ticket to visit Alhambra

As you know, Alhambra is a beautiful, fantastic monument, especially Alhambra has inside the palace of Nasrid belonged to the last Muslims dynasty in Spain. As the matter of that, all tourists will want to visit this palace, the result is the limit number of visitors who can visit it per day, so if you want to see this beautiful palace, you should have book the ticket in advance.

Link to book it here

Print the ticket of Corral del Carbon

After getting 2 ticket printed, I and my sister Hien went to visit Alhambra. It was such a hard job of getting to Alhambra since the palace was on the top of the hills.

• Spanish Funny Wedding.

However, I still remembered a special event that happened on our way to Alhambra, a Spanish Wedding. It could be the funniest wedding I have ever seen in my life, a wedding, in which bride and groom and their families are dancing together, the sound of a guitar with strong flamenco dancing, vibrant with energy and lively with strong tradition.

• Alhambra, the precious pearl of Spain

Alhambra means the Red One, it is the last stronghold of Islamic dynasty ruling in the south region of Spain. Being preserved in perfect condition, almost the same as the original built in 13th century by the last Narsid king of Muslims.

The Narsid dynasty finished its rule in 1492 when Spain Christian army has taken the city.

• The story of Muslim in the Southern Spain

The story of Muslim ruling the Southern Spain is a long story, with a lot of adventures, I will tell you guys about that adventure when I visit Cordoba, the capital of Kingdom of Cordoba, the Muslim Kingdom in Spain before it was divided into many smaller ones, in which Granada stood as the smallest but last one.

I assure that when I was young, on VTV2 - the national channel of education in Vietnam, I have watched many short clips about famous places around the world; I must have watched the clip about Alhambra.

I could not believe that one day I could stand here in Alhambra to witness the beauty and the glory of Alhambra on my own eyes.

• Alhambra - Nasrid Palaces

Islamic architecture consists a wide range of secular and religious belief, famous for it careful hand crafted, as well as the foundation of Islam, Muslims will not use any kind of animals, human or gods in decoration, instead, they will use a lot of flowers, leaves, nature combined with words or sentences from Qur’an.

God is the only victor in Arabic (repeated 10 000 times in Alhambra)

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In the center of Narsid palace, it stands the Saon de Embajadore, in which the tower 45 meters high stands, when I was inside looking up to ceiling, I have seen the universe, the sky with stars shining – a masterpiece of Muslim Artist.

The ceiling of Salon de Embajadore, in fact is kind of puzzle game, Arabic craftsmen have carefully placed 8017 small pieces of wood to create the thing called the universe of Islam with stars and galaxy. It somehow told us the advanced level of geometry of Muslims 1000 years old.

• The Court of Lions

The Court of the Lions, the symbol of power, astonishingly, it has been always flowing since it was built 700 years ago.

I found out that almost every corner in Alhambra; we can easily find water fountains from small one to big one. There are two reasons for this.

The first reason is the hot weather in Spain, so water fountains are operating as air conditioners to cool down the temperature.

• Muslim Culture

The second reason is about religion. Muslims have to pray 5 times a day (5 Praying times Islam).

Fajr ( True Dawn)

Dhuhr (Midday)

Asr (Afternoon)

Maghrib (Sunset)

Isha’a (Night)

Whenever going to pray, Islamic people will wash their hands carefully and pray towards the direction of Mecca, so fountains are for them to wash their hands.

To be honest, if i have a chance of shaking hands with Muslims, I will admire them because these are the cleanest hands in the world.

After I have visited all the gardens and palaces in Nasrid, we continued to visit Summer Palace or Garden Palace of Muslim King (Palacio de Generalife).

• Palacio de Generalife - Garden Palace of Muslim King

Muslims focus a lot on herbs, plants, flowers made from nature. Palacio de Generalife is a palace but also a garden in which various types of flora are grown. These plants are precious to King of Muslims.

Palacio de Generalife used to be a garden with various types of herbs, plants and flowers, that no longer exist today, however the system of water fountain is very admirable.

(To be continued: Granada – Red Sunset on Alhambra)

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