Mexuar

The Alhambra (, Spanish: [aˈlambɾa]; Arabic: الْحَمْرَاء, romanized: al-ḥamrāʼ ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world, in addition to containing notable examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture.The complex was begun in 1238 by Muhammad I Ibn al-Ahmar, the first Nasrid emir and founder of the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state of Al-Andalus. It was built on the Sabika hill, an outcrop of the Sierra Nevada which had been the site of earlier fortresses and of the 11th-century palace of Samuel ibn Naghrillah. Later Nasrid rulers continuously modified the site. The most significant construction campaigns, which gave the royal palaces much of their definitive character, took place in the 14th century during the reigns of Yusuf I and Muhammad V. After the conclusion of the Christian Reconquista in 1492, the site became the Royal Court of Ferdinand and Isabella (where Christopher Columbus received royal endorsement for his expedition), and the palaces were partially altered. In 1526, Charles V commissioned a new Renaissance-style palace in direct juxtaposition with the Nasrid palaces, but it was left uncompleted in the early 17th century. After being allowed to fall into disrepair for centuries, with its buildings occupied by squatters, the Alhambra was rediscovered following the defeat of Napoleon I, whose troops destroyed parts of the site. The rediscoverers were first British intellectuals and then other American and Northern European Romantic travelers. The most influential of them was Washington Irving, whose Tales of the Alhambra (1832) brought international attention to the site. The Alhambra was one of the first Islamic monuments to become the object of modern scientific study and has been the subject of numerous restorations since the 19th century. It is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.During the Nasrid era, the Alhambra was a self-contained city separate from the rest of Granada below. It contained most of the amenities of a Muslim city such as a Friday mosque, hammams (public baths), roads, houses, artisan workshops, a tannery, and a sophisticated water supply system. As a royal city and citadel, it contained at least six major palaces, most of them located along the northern edge where they commanded views over the Albaicín quarter. The most famous and best-preserved are the Mexuar, the Comares Palace, the Palace of the Lions, and the Partal Palace, which form the main attraction to visitors today. The other palaces are known from historical sources and from modern excavations. At the Alhambra's western tip is the Alcazaba fortress. Multiple smaller towers and fortified gates are also located along the Alhambra's walls. Outside the Alhambra walls and located nearby to the east is the Generalife, a former Nasrid country estate and summer palace accompanied by historic orchards and modern landscaped gardens.The architecture of the Nasrid palaces reflects the tradition of Moorish architecture developed over previous centuries. It is characterized by the use of the courtyard as a central space and basic unit around which other halls and rooms were organized. Courtyards typically had water features at their center, such as a reflective pool or a fountain. Decoration was focused on the inside of the building and was executed primarily with tile mosaics on lower walls and carved stucco on the upper walls. Geometric patterns, vegetal motifs, and Arabic inscriptions were the main types of decorative motifs. Additionally, "stalactite"-like sculpting, known as muqarnas, was used for three-dimensional features like vaulted ceilings.

The Emirate of Granada, also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, was an Islamic realm in the southern Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty. It was the last independent Muslim state in Western Europe.Muslims had been present in the Iberian Peninsula, which they called Al-Andalus, since 711. By the late 12th century, following the expansion of Christian kingdoms in the north, the area of Muslim control had been reduced to the southern parts of the peninsula governed by the Almohad Caliphate. After Almohad control retreated in 1228, the ambitious Muhammad I Ibn al-Ahmar rose to power and established the Nasrid dynasty in control of a sizeable portion of this territory, roughly corresponding to the modern Spanish provinces of Granada, Almería, and Málaga. By 1250, the Nasrid emirate was the last independent Muslim polity in the peninsula. The emirate generally existed as a tributary state of the rising Crown of Castile, though it frequently warred with the latter and with other neighbouring states over control of its frontier regions. Despite its precarious position, Granada enjoyed considerable cultural and economic prosperity for over two centuries and the Nasrids became one of the longest-lived Muslim dynasties in Iberia. The famed Alhambra palace complex was built during this period. The population of the emirate, swelled by refugees from the north, was more homogenously Muslim and Arabic-speaking than in earlier Muslim states on the peninsula, with a Jewish minority also present. The political and cultural apogee of Nasrid Granada was in the 14th century, particularly in the second reign of Muhammad V. After this period, internal dynastic conflicts escalated. After 1479, Granada faced a united Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs intent on conquering it. In 1491, after a decade of warfare known as the Granada War, the emirate was forced to capitulate. Muhammad XII, the last Nasrid ruler, formally surrendered Granada in January 1492, marking the end of independent Muslim rule in Iberia.

The 1066 Granada massacre took place on 30 December 1066 (9 Tevet 4827; 10 Safar 459 AH) when a Muslim mob stormed the royal palace in Granada, in the Taifa of Granada, killed and crucified the Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela, and massacred much of the Jewish population of the city.

The Court of the Myrtles (Spanish: Patio de los Arrayanes) is the central part of the Comares Palace (Palacio de Comares) inside the Alhambra palace complex in Granada, Spain. It is located east of the Mexuar and west of the Palace of the Lions. It was begun by the Nasrid sultan Isma'il I in the early 14th century and significantly modified by his successors Yusuf I and Muhammad V later in the same century. In addition to the Court of the Myrtles, the palace's most important element is Hall of Ambassadors (Spanish: Salón de los Embajadores), the sultan's throne hall and one of the most impressive chambers in the Alhambra.

The Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada (Museum of Fine Arts of Granada ) is a fine arts museum in Granada, Spain. Since the 1950s it has been housed in the Palace of Charles V which also houses the Museo de la Alhambra.

The Palace of Charles V is a Renaissance building in Granada, southern Spain, inside the Alhambra, a former Nasrid palace complex on top of the Sabika hill. Construction began in 1527 but dragged on and was left unfinished after 1637. The palace was only completed after 1923, when Leopoldo Torres Balbás initiated its restoration. The building has never been a home to a monarch and stood roofless until 1967. Today, the building also houses the Alhambra Museum on its ground floor and the Fine Arts Museum of Granada on its upper floor.

The Court of the Lions (Spanish: Patio de los Leones) or Palace of the Lions (Spanish: Palacio de los Leones) is a palace in the heart of the Alhambra, a historic citadel formed by a complex of palaces, gardens and forts in Granada, Spain. It was commissioned by the Nasrid sultan Muhammed V of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus. Its construction started in the second period of his reign, between 1362 and 1391 AD. Along with the Alhambra, the palace is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was minted in Spain's 2011 limited edition of €2 Commemorative Coins. The Palace of the Lions is one of the most famous palaces in Islamic architecture and exemplifies the apogee of Nasrid architecture in Al-Andalus. The architecture of the palace presented a significant shift in the design of Nasrid palaces and introduced new trends in ornamentation. The building consists of a rectangular courtyard centered on a marble fountain with twelve sculpted lions. Four main halls surround the courtyard, along with some upper-floor rooms. Water channels connect the central fountain with smaller fountains in the four halls. The halls feature some of the most elaborate and sophisticated muqarnas vaults in the Islamic world.

The Alcazaba (Spanish: Alcazaba; Arabic: القصبة, romanized: al-qaṣabah, lit. 'citadel') is a fortress at the western tip of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Its name comes from the Arabic term al-qaṣabah ('the citadel' or kasbah), which became Alcazaba in Spanish.: 9  It is the oldest surviving part of the Alhambra, having been built by Muhammad I Ibn al-Ahmar, the founder of the Nasrid dynasty, after 1238.: 25 : 81  It stands on the site of an earlier fortress built by the Zirid kingdom of Granada in the 11th century.: 81 

Partal Palace (Spanish: El Palacio del Partal ) is a palatial structure inside the Alhambra fortress complex located in Granada, Spain. It was originally built in the early 14th century by the Nasrid ruler Muhammad III, making it the oldest surviving palatial structure in the Alhambra.

The Archaeological Museum of Granada is an archaeological museum in the Albayzín district, Granada, Spain. It was established in 1879.The museum is located at 41, Carrera del Darro in the Castril palace, dating from the 16th century. It hosts many artefacts from a range of time periods, namely halls dedicated to Paleolithic and hominization process; Neolithic and Eneolithic; Bronze Age; Colonizations and Hispano-Roman peoples; Roman era, Late Roman and Paleo Christian; Hispano-Visigothic and Mozarab archeology; and Western Middle Ages and Hispano-Muslim Archeology.It includes a Renaissance patio. The building's façade was created in 1593.

The Castril palace (also House of Castril) is a Renaissance style palace located in Sacromonte, a district of the Spanish city of Granada. Nowadays it hosts the Archaeological Museum of Granada. The house is nailed in the Race of the Darro, in the old Arab district of Ajsaris, seat of 16th century's granadine nobility. The palace is one of the best Renaissance palaces of Granada and belonged to the family of Hernando de Zafra, secretary of Catholic monarchs who participated actively in reconquering it from the Muslim hands during the Reconquista. At the top of the facade the date of its foundation is recorded: 1539. This work has been attributed to Sebastián de Alcántara, one of the most outstanding disciples of Diego de Siloé. In 1917, the Castril palace was acquired by arabist and orientalist Leopoldo Eguílaz y Yanguas to make it a definitive location of the Archaeological Museum of Granada.

The Palacio del Partal Alto ("Upper Partal Palace" in Spanish), also known as the Palacio de Yusuf III ("Palace of Yusuf III") or the Palacio del Conde del Tendilla ("Palace of the Count of Tendilla"),: 58  is a former palace in the Alhambra, the historic citadel of Granada, Spain. It is the oldest palace in the Alhambra for which any remains have been found.: 236  It was built in the reign of the Nasrid ruler Muhammad II. After the conquest of Granada in 1492 it became the residence of the Count of Tendilla, the governor of the Alhambra, until it was confiscated by Philip V in 1717 and subsequently demolished. After excavations in the 20th century, a part of the palace's foundations are visible today in the Partal Gardens.