The Chamber of the Ambassadors is where the emirs would have conducted negotiations with Christian emissaries on the Alhambra. Located in the Torre de Comares, it has a marvellous domed marquetry ceiling containing more than 8000 cedar pieces in a star pattern representing the seven heavens of Islam. 　　Admission is...

　　This is the stunning centrepiece of the Alhambra, the most brilliant Islamic building in Europe, with perfectly proportioned rooms and courtyards, intricately moulded stucco walls, beautiful tiling, fine carved wooden ceilings and elaborate stalactite-like muqarnas vaulting, all worked in mesmerising, symbolic, geometrical patterns. Arabic inscriptions proliferate in the stucco work....

　　The Alhambra is Granada’s – and Europe’s – love letter to Moorish culture. Set against the brooding Sierra Nevada peaks, this fortified palace started life as a walled citadel before becoming the opulent seat of Granada’s Nasrid emirs. Their showpiece palaces, the 14th-century Palacios Nazaríes, are among the finest Islamic...

　　This is one of the star rooms in the Alhambra. Boasting a mesmerising octagonal stalactite ceiling, it's the legendary site of the murders of the noble Abencerraj family, whose leader, the story goes, dared to dally with Zoraya, Sultan Abu al-Hasan's favourite concubine. The rusty stains in the fountain are...

　　The celebrated Patio de los Leones (Lion Courtyard) sits at the core of the Palacio de los Leones, the palace built in the Alhambra in the second half of the 14th century by Mohammed V. Its best-known feature is an 11th-century fountain set atop 12 carved marble lions. 　　The patio's...

　　The richly decorated Sala de Dos Hermanas (Hall of Two Sisters), in the Palacios Nazaríes section of the Alhambra, sits on the northern side of the Patio de los Leones. Probably named after the slabs of white marble flanking its fountain, it features a dizzying muqarnas (honeycomb vaulted) dome with...

　　The Royal Chapel is the last resting place of Spain’s Reyes Católicos (Catholic Monarchs), Isabel I de Castilla (1451–1504) and Fernando II de Aragón (1452–1516), who commissioned the elaborate Isabelline-Gothic-style mausoleum that was to house them. Commenced in 1505, it wasn't completed until 1517, hence the royals' interment in the...

　　Built between 1737 and 1759, this spectacular basilica unveils a blinding display of opulent baroque decor. Barely an inch of its interior lacks embellishment, most of it in gleaming gold and silver. Frescos by Diego Sánchez Sarabia and Italian artists Corrado Giaquinto and Tomás Ferrer adorn the ceilings and side...