Castles · Tour

Alhambra and Generalife Ending at the Partal Pond and Torre de las Damas

A guided visit to the whole complex, and one that does not stop at the famous rooms. The Nasrid Palaces are here, all three of them, independent buildings connected to each other: the Mexuar, the Palace of Comares and the Palace of the Lions, each built by a different sultan for himself and his court. So is the Alcazaba, which came first and was more than a fortress. Inside its walls stood a small town housing the royal servants and the sultan's guard, which is the part people forget when they look at the towers. The Palace of Charles V stands in the middle of it all, the finest Renaissance building in Spain, put there as a statement of victory by the empire that finished off the last Muslim kingdom in Iberia. Nobody who built it was being subtle. The Generalife holds gardens from several periods and the palace buildings in among them, some Nasrid, some later. The route ends at the Partal, which most groups walk past. The pond in front of it doubles the arcade, and the Torre de las Damas beside it is all that survives of the palace that gave the area its name. The group forms in the car park below the El Llano restaurant, fifteen minutes before the start.