How Europe's biggest Islamic Palace changed all our lives

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Today we're in Granada, a city in southern Spain, taking a look at the Alhambra - a magnificent mountaintop palace that tells us a lot about now just Islam and Christianity in Europe, but also the world.
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Alhambra is a 1000-year-old palace in Granada, and definitely one of the main things to visit in southern Spain. I carried on from here to Morocco by boat, but more on that later :) It was mostly developed during the time of the Nasrid Dynasty, until the Spanish reconquests/inquisition took this area back over for Catholicism. But what remains is this amazing palace and the whole Moorish quarter of Granada which was an absolute joy to visit.
I also got here on El Pato, the 300+km/h train through the Spanish mountains, which was quite an experience!
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#travel #spain #alhambra #history #granada

[@thornton]

Visit tinyurl.com/bdfbby29 or use code THORNTON at Manta Sleep for 10% off :) And which historical place should I review next? Willing to travel very far x ➡ the colosseum of tunisia: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5nCfXl3jrOHirM ➡ the armenian ruins in the mountains: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXSkpZ5jZ7qthMk

[@cjay2]

But you couldn't stay one day more to enter the Alhambra? When I travel, I stay at least 3 days in any place I go. Just saying.

[@vain2521]

I love this bro! From other videos I've seen of yours, you seem to love Roman ruins. You might like the Roman theatre in Amman. It has been on my personal list for a while, and a friend of mine went and loved the city of Amman. Its decently far ;). Wonderful storytelling.

[@SyifaAdriana]

Oooooo such an incredible video, Tom! Loved the intro so much. You’ve worked hard on it.

[@thornton]

Aww thank you for noticing! 😍

[@Stukin_The_Pines]

As usual, an excellent video from you. What an awesome place to visit. Also, I love the sound of your voice. You could read aloud any random textbook from front to back, and I would sit & listen to the whole thing.

[@MlleFunambuline]

A few tips for the time you will visit: 1. Do it, it's incredible. 2. You can go to the visitor's entrance with a bus from the center of the city (you will walk enough just visiting) 3. Reserve the earliest slot possible, in the middle of the day it's really crowded. 4. Take water and food like for a full day of hiking, it's huge. 5. Don't skip the gardens. The architecture is not the only incredible thing in this palace.

[@FromtheWindowSeat]

Impressive you were able to make this whole video without being able to enter. I highly recommend returning so you can visit … it’s a magical and captivating place that, as you say, stays with you forever. 😊

[@anschelsc]

Thank you, Thornton Tom, for telling me about famous American author Irving Washington! (I kid, your videos are excellent and I know from experience how hard it is to catch mistakes like that)

[@thornton]

I did not notice that all the times I watched it back hahaha 👏😭

[@ednicholson7839]

The Alhambra is amazing. I've never seen anything that really compares to it. It has a magic about it. I loved the town of Granada too. I wouldn't mind living there for awhile.

[@SilverNightKyle]

What a wondrous journey…🏯

[@mel__senpai]

Trains. Yes. History. Yes. Professor Thornton. Yes. Learned something new. Also Yes.

[@thornton]

When the trifecta hits ☺️

[@CarrieJamrogowicz]

Amazing. I’m headed there in a couple weeks so this is great timing for me. Usually when I visit places I just wander around seeing what there is to see but I actually signed up for a guided tour of the Alhambra. Gonna watch this video a few more times too. 😁

[@CarrieJamrogowicz]

Oh the guy’s name was Washington Irving

[@wneo7]

Tom George Washington-ed him. 😂

[@mikegreen5249]

KZbin algo sent me here after googled this place while reminiscing about a vist, I wish you could of shown the inside alhambra, return when you can , it will be worth it. It's a stunning place, nothing else comes close to the mosaics and masonry.

[@dkeith-fc8hn]

Even beer has a brand called Alhambra.

[@SisterSunny]

wow this video was just as amazing as always!

[@williamadams7136]

I highly recommend visiting Seville. It's an amazing city. Stay in a traditional courtyard.

[@dkeith-fc8hn]

It's called a Riad

[@ForestArchaicCollective]

We had much the same thing when we saw Granada, had thought booking about a week+ out would be ample but ...yep one of Spains many holiday weekends, just managed to snag one of the Alhambra-at-night slots but yes, next time will be checking in months ahead Is there still a huge crane over the site?

[@ori9761]

This reminds me of the time I travelled to Seville to see the Alcazar not realising you absolutely need to buy a ticket a few days in advance and I couldnt get in 😂 nevermind there was a lot of other great things to see, I was equally blown away by the orange trees in the city which apparently go to the UK for marmalade 🍊

[@thornton]

shout out marmalade 🍞

[@audioupgrades]

Wonderful video. Alhambra definitely belongs to the category of otherworldly buildings.

[@brandonking1737]

4:26 Fun fact about that plaza: opposite from the view of the Alhambra is the Iglesia de San Nicolas. The church suffered a fire some years ago and was rebuilt. Now, the historical conservation law in Granada is that if there are any Moorish records of a structure, it is protected and must retain it's historic design. But if there are no Moorish records, it is assumed to have been built after the conquest and has no protections and the owner can do anything they want to it. They could not find Moorish records of this church building, so they were able to update the interior design, and it resulted in the most modern looking church I have ever seen in Europe. Also, when you book your tickets to the Alhambra, book as soon as you can because they sell out quickly! I went to Granada in the off season, bought 2 weeks in advance, and I purchased the LAST ticket available on either day/

[@napoleonsdauphin]

Is it gonna be weirder than I thought?

[@thornton]

😝

[@BadSloucher]

🦵🦵

[@thornton]

Leg day reporting for duty 🫡

[@anschelsc]

Fun fact about Granada: the city's name is also the Spanish word for "pomegranate", and if you look around you'll find lots of pomegranate motifs on the municipal coat of arms, local architecture, and even some lampposts! Less fun fact about the Alhambra: in addition to bankrolling Columbus, the Catholic Monarchs were also there when they issued the 1492 Edict of Expulsion exiling Spain's then-thriving Jewish population. So it bears the dubious honor of being the birthplace of both a genocide and an ethnic cleansing.

[@thornton]

Interesting additions, thanks!

[@Ziad3195]

Yeah, let's talk about the "reconquista", why I disagree with it and with calling it as such. It implies a European-centric view of history, suggesting that the Christian conquest of the Iberian Peninsula was a constant heroic and righteous struggle against Muslim invaders. It majorally downplays or even erases the rich cultural tapestry of the land before the conquest, which completely changed after the conquest. It was a very complex and very diverse culturally and religiously landscape with many, long periods coexistence and cultural exchange and cultural flourishing. It ignores significant contributions of Andalusians to the development of the Iberian Peninsula, who left a lasting legacy in areas such as sciences, art, architecture, philosophy, even cusine, and other areas. It completely ignores that the conquest was a violent and very oppressive process, involving forced conversions, expulsions, persecutions and killings of all non-Christians and the many Spanish inquisitions. It implies a constant struggle to reclaim "lost" territory that was rightfully theirs from the beginning through cultural and historical lineage, and suggests the Christian kingdoms had a superior claim to the land, ignoring the centuries-long presence of the Andalusi people. Except that's not half true, the Visigoths that the Moors conquered to take the land were themselves sonquer settlers, who who themselves took it from other conquorer settlers, the Romans. The Romans lived there for 2 centuries, the Goths for 3, the Andalusians for 8. The Christian Kingdoms that conquered Al-Andalus took it from a diverse people who had been living there for 8 centuries, and they did so after centuries of coexistence, cultural exchange and cultural flourishing. The Christian conquerors themselves were not indigenous to the region, being descendants of Visigoths, Germanic tribes, and Romanized populations. This historical context challenges the notion of a purely Christian "right" to the land. They were not the original inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula. The indiginous inhabitants were Iberians and Celticiberians, who weren't even Christians.