In 1238 Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar, founder of the Nasrid dynasty, began building a fortress-palace on the Sabika hill above Granada. Its walls of reddish earth gave it its name, al-Hamra, "the red one". For over 250 years it was the heart of the last Muslim kingdom in Spain.
Behind its plain fortress walls, the sultans Yusuf I and Muhammad V created some of the most beautiful rooms in the world, covered with carved plaster, coloured tiles and Arabic poetry. The Court of the Lions, with its fountain held up by twelve stone lions, was built under Muhammad V in the 14th century.
On 2 January 1492, Sultan Muhammad XII, known as Boabdil, handed the keys of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella. The Alhambra, with the gardens of the Generalife, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984.
