See Spain’s fabled Alhambra as few have ever before

“The Alhambra is first and foremost a palatine city,” he says. “It was the seat of the head of state, with military barracks, a courtly city, and a set of palaces built over the course of two and a half centuries.” The monument grew over that time from the primitive Alcazaba, or fortress, built by Muhammad I beginning in 1238, to later palaces reflecting the Nasrid dynasty’s sumptuous style. A line of sultans from the Nasr family ruled until 1492, when this last stronghold of Muslim authority on the peninsula was toppled by a newly unified Spanish monarchy after the marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon.