Susan's NGTAW Blog: The Generalife - beautiful Moorish gardens of the Alhambra

Waiting for our tour to start, we had a little lunch and a visit to the museum shop

Sunday, November 3, 2019 Granada

Granada is situated beautifully abutting the mountains – it even has a ski hill. The city is distributed across 7 hills. Atop one of the is the Alhambra, and its affiliated gardens, the Generalife. We were scheduled for a 1:30 tour, and had some time before we needed to gather to meet our local guide, Gracilla. We visited the Alhambra museum store and I bought a book, as well as a scarf and some gifts for the girls. It is hard to get tickets for the Alhambra – they allow 300 people per half hour. Our AIA tour guide, Elena, couldn’t get a ticket, so she stayed behind and watched our shopping bags.

A lush, green oasis, a distance from the towers of the Alhambra - a welcome relief from the heat of summer

We started in the Generalife gardens. (If you can’t get a ticket to the Alhambra, you can tour the Generalife, according to Elena.) We crossed the aqueduct that was built to bring the mountain water down to the fortress. From the belvederes of the garden, we had great views of the Alhambra, including the surrounding walls, towers and the central palace.

I was confused about the title of the gardens, which is pronounced hay-nay-rah-lee'-fay. The title Generalife is said to come from the Arabic phrase that means Architect’s Garden. It served as the country estate of the Nasrid rulers, and also as a location for gardens and agriculture, a cool location away from the palace of the Alhambra palaces in the summer.

Even in November, many blooming flowers and a beautiful oasis

Panoramic views of the walls, towers and palaces of the Alhambra from the Generalife gardens

It was the custom of the Muslim rulers in the Iberian peninsula to have large properties called almunyas (vegetable gardens, orchards and farms) for grazing animals, raising food and to highlight their status. The Generalife started across the ravine from the Alhambra and is thought to have primarily been built in the 13^thcentury, building in harmony with the Alhambra expansions of the same time. A Royal Canal, and a series of channels and ponds divert water from the River Darro to supply both the Generalife irrigation and the Alhambra.

The pointed embattlements tower (Torre de los Picos) and to the right, the tall Tower of the Comares Palace

The gardens had many water features, and still many beautiful flowers in early
November. The sidewalks were paved with intricate patterns of small black and white cobblestones. There were many trimmed cypress hedges that formed mazes and arcades. All together, a serene, relaxing and refreshing walk.

Fountains and water features are prominent throughout the Generalife

Beautifully tiled walkways made from local river pebbles

The walkways are paved in a traditional style of Granada with a mosaic of local river pebbles: white ones from the River Darro and black ones from the River Genil.