Castles · Tour

Alhambra Small Group: Skip the Line into the 14th-Century Nasrid Court

The queue at the Alhambra is skipped, and the guided part is run in a small group, which at this monument is the difference between seeing the rooms and filing through them. The Nasrid Palaces are what the ticket is for. They went up in the 14th century, when Granada was the last Muslim kingdom in Spain and its sultans were spending like people who suspected the money would not last. The result is a court where every surface is worked: carved plaster, tiled dados, honeycomb vaults, and water running through the middle of it because water was the most expensive thing a ruler could put on display. A guide is worth having here for one reason above the rest. The decoration is not abstract pattern. Much of it is writing, and what it says is about the building, the dynasty, and God, in that order. Without someone to read it out, the finest rooms in the palace are wallpaper. The tickets are non-refundable, so the date is worth fixing before booking.