The palace at the end of the earth — the Alhambra's Nasrid rooms are the finest surviving Moorish architecture on the planet, and free tapas still come with every drink in the shadow of the Albaicín
Granada is a city of 230,000 at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in Andalusia, southern Spain. The Alhambra — a Nasrid palace-fortress begun in the 13th century, arguably the most complete surviving example of Moorish palatial architecture — draws 2.7 million visitors a year. The Albaicín quarter, with its whitewashed houses and Moorish street plan, faces the Alhambra across a ravine; the Sacromonte caves above it are the heartland of Romani flamenco. Granada is also the last major Spanish city to maintain the tradition of free tapas: every drink ordered comes with a small dish.
Granada was the last Nasrid sultanate of Al-Andalus — the Emirate of Granada (1238–1492) survived long after the rest of Muslim Spain had been reconquered, eventually surrendering on 2 January 1492 when Sultan Muhammad XII handed the Alhambra keys to Ferdinand and Isabella. The Catholic Monarchs chose Granada as their burial city; their Gothic Royal Chapel (Capilla Real) holds their tombs beside the main cathedral. Washington Irving lived in the Alhambra's abandoned rooms in 1829 and published 'Tales of the Alhambra' (1832), transforming the crumbling palace into a Romantic era pilgrimage and…