Generalife
Castle · Granada
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The Generalife was built in the 13th century as a summer residence for the Nasrid kings, begun under Muhammad II and expanded by later sultans. Its name means most exalted garden, and the hillside terraces, water channels and myrtle hedges were designed as a retreat and working farm above the Alhambra. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
Water runs the length of the Patio de la Acequia, the long rectangular pool at the garden's centre, drawn from the same channel network that supplies the Alhambra below; the crossing jets that arch over the pool were added in the 19th century, well after the Nasrid sultans who built the garden. A separate stone staircase, the Escalera del Agua, carries water down channels cut into its handrails past four shaded landings, a 14th-century design still working today. The Patio de la Sultana, a quiet courtyard in the upper gardens, is named for a legend that Boabdil's wife met a knight of the Abencerraje family under its old cypress, an affair blamed for the court feuding that helped end Nasrid rule. Much of the garden a visitor walks through now, including the cypress-arched lower garden, was laid out between 1931 and 1951 by the architects Leopoldo Torres Balbás and Francisco Prieto-Moreno, replacing what had been the palace's working orchards.
What you see
A long, narrow pool lined with clipped hedges runs the length of the Patio de la Acequia, its water jets arching to meet over the centre, with water visibly running down the stone handrails of the Escalera del Agua staircase above it.
Practical
A cheaper Gardens-only ticket, without the timed Nasrid Palaces slot the full Alhambra ticket requires, covers the Generalife's upper and lower gardens and the Patio de la Acequia.
nasrid gardensislamic architectureunesco heritagewater gardens