LA ALHAMBRA - الْقَلْعَةُ ٱلْحَمْرَاءُ

This emblematic monument declared as World heritage by the UNESCO is the most visited (2 million + per year) touristic Palace in the World. The Alhambra is a reflection of the culture of the last days of the Nasrid emirate of Granada. The literal translation of Alhambra "red fortress" derives from the color of the red clay of the surroundings of which the Palace is made.
It was largely ignored until the eleventh century, when its ruins were renovated and rebuilt by Samuel ibn Naghralla, vizier to the King Bādīs of the Zirid Dynasty, in an attempt to preserve the small Jewish settlement also located on the Sabikah hill. However, evidence from Arab texts indicates that the fortress was easily penetrated and that the actual Alhambra that survives today was built during the Nasrid Dynasty.
During the reign of the Nasrid Dynasty, the Alhambra was transformed into a palatine city complete with an irrigation system composed of acequias for the gardens of the Generalife located outside the fortress. Previously, the old Alhambra structure had been dependent upon rainwater collected from a cistern and from what could be brought up from the Albaicín. The creation of the Sultan's Canal solidified the identity of the Alhambra as a palace-city rather than a defensive and ascetic structure.
In 1492, the same year when America was discovered by Columbus, the Muslim lost Granada , the Alhambra and Al-Andalus (Spain) forever when the Catholic Kings of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile reconquered that Muslim region, with an overwhelming army. It was the beginning of the Spanish Empire in which the sun never hid.