Castles · Tour

Alhambra in a Group of Fifteen: Nasrid Palaces, Alcazaba and Generalife

Fifteen travellers is the cap, and at the Alhambra that number decides the day. The Nasrid Palaces are timed, the corridors are narrow, and a group of forty spends half its visit waiting for the back of the line to catch up. The queue is skipped and the guide is an interpreter of Granada's heritage rather than a general city guide, which shows up in what gets explained: how the sultans and Moorish kings actually lived in the palace city, why the plasterwork in the Nasrid rooms is decorated the way it is, and what the Red Fortress was for before it was beautiful. The route takes in every part of the complex, and the stories are not all pleasant. One of the better ones concerns a massacre at a 15th-century banquet, told in the room where it is said to have happened. Questions are welcome, which in a group this size is a real option rather than a formality. The hilltop also gives the view back over Granada, which is the photograph most people come up for. The UNESCO listing is on the gate. What is inside is one of the few medieval palaces in Europe that was never rebuilt into something else.