Alhambra

Outside the Senate rooms.  Shades of the Taj Mahal
In the way it is balance and reflected??

So, I have totally never heard of this place and it is awesome!!!!  It is another World Heritage listed place and I can see why!  It was the last Muslim kingdom built in this part of Spain around 1200 BC and stayed in their control for 2 1/2 centuries, before being taken over by the Christians.

It has three very distinct building styles all in one and it very well preserved considering its age.  It is a bit like Machu Picchu, where there are limited numbers of people that are allowed to go through and you can only go in one directions, which a poor unfortunate German couple found out when they tried to go back past our guide.  He said to them they couldn't go back and when they argued, he said 'think about this place, don't think about yourself' which kind of put it all in a nutshell really.

Doors inside the Senate
with a distinct Middle Eastern
flavour.  Originally each gap
had coloured glass.

The Muslim part of the building has three distinct building materials, wood, tile and stucco.  They have words written the entire outline of the building, mostly God is great, there is only one God, Mohammad is the prophet etc.  They have three parts to the building, the Senate, the court house and the living quarters, which was basically a harem.

Three types of building, hundreds of years
apart.  The bit at the top is 16th century and
was to show the Royals of Spain were superior
and larger, of course!

The gardens are absolutely spectacular and cover such a large area.  There is an old wall around the whole city which was obviously used for defence, but the city is built in such a defendable place, that I think it would have been hard to have taken.

There are only 8000 people let in every year and much of it is roped off, so random people can't wander everywhere.  It is very well done and I actually bought a book, so I could read more about it and be all knowledgeable and stuff.