The Alhambra as seen through expert eyes

Architecture, landscape, art and decoration in the Alhambra will be the central features of the new series of visits guided by experts, which will begin on Friday 24th April. Those interested in taking part in this activity must book their places in advance online (www.alhambra-tickets.es) or by calling 902 888 001. Tickets cost 9 euros and the minimum age for taking part is 12 years old, the age at which children normally begin secondary education.
With the aim of expanding our knowledge of the Alhambra and raising the awareness and involvement of local people in the conservation of their local heritage, the visits guided by specialists (Fridays from 16:00 hours and Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 hours) will offer different insights into the monument via itineraries led by specialists in different fields who also have in-depth knowledge of the Alhambra and its group of monuments.
The first series in the programme is entitled ‘The Alhambra decoded’. The Conservator of the Archaeological Heritage of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife, Jesús Bermúdez, will be opening this programme with a route in which he will be revealing the ‘Secrets of the Palace’. On the next day Saturday 25th of April, José Miguel Puerta Vílchez, Professor of History of Art at the University of Granada, will be guiding visitors around the ‘Self-decoded Architecture’; while on Sunday the visit led by the language expert Naima Analnah will be focusing on ‘Koranic epigraphy in the Alhambra’.
The visits scheduled for the 8th – 10th May will take place in the area surrounding the Alhambra. Those attending on Friday will learn more about the monument with a visit describing the work being done in the vegetable gardens of the Generalife, led by Isabel Bestué, Professor of the History of Civil Engineering at the UGR; while on Saturday, 9th May visitors will be taken ‘Up to the Woods of the Alhambra’ by a forestry engineer, Ignacio Morón, and can also take the Dobla de Oro (Golden Doubloon) itinerary around the Hispano-Muslim monuments of Granada, namely the Bañuelo Arabic Baths, the Horno de Oro Morisco House, the Dar al-Horra Palace, the Casa del Chapiz, the Casa de Zafra and the Corral del Carbón. This route will be guided by the writer and publisher Manuel Mateo Pérez and will have a different meeting-point at the Corral del Carbón.
Water, archaeology and geometry in the Alhambra will be the main thread running through the Essential Alhambra series scheduled for the weekend of 15th-17th May. The historian and surveyor, María Cullel, will be taking visitors on a journey through the ‘Water of the Alhambra’ on Friday at 16:00h; Antonio Malpica, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Granada, will be unravelling the mysteries of archaeology at the Monument, and Rafael Pérez Gómez, Professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics of the UGR, will be focusing on geometry in his visit on the Sunday at 10:00h.
‘The Nasrid Alhambra’ and the ‘Defensive Architecture’ of the Alhambra will be the titles of the itineraries planned for 22-24 May which will be led by Antonio Orihuela, the Director of the School of Arabic Studies, Gaspar Aranda, Islamic Art historian and José Manuel Gómez-Moreno, Professor of History of Art at the UGR respectively.
The month of May will be brought to a close with visits guided by Enrique Gámez, Coordinator of the Proyecto Alhambra, entitled ‘The Alhambra, source of musical inspiration’; Andrés Molinari, teacher and theatre critic, who will be taking visitors on a trip through the ‘Alhambra in theatre and theatre in the Alhambra’ and the writer and teacher, José Carlos Rosales, on ‘the Alhambra as inspiration for poetry’.
The visits planned for 12th-14th June will be centring on ‘Art and Decoration in the Alhambra’. The Head of the Department for the Maintenance and Restoration of Plasterwork will be showing visitors ‘the honeycomb ceilings of the Alhambra’; while Purificación Marinetto, the head of the Alhambra’s Museum Conservation Department will be exploring ‘Islamic Art as seen through the Nasrid Alhambra’ and Gloria Aljazairi, Head of the Department for the Maintenance of Woodwork, will be explaining ‘Nasrid Latticework Decoration in Wood’. 
Tickets purchased online or by telephone can be picked up at the automatic ticket machines situated next to the entrance to the Monument or at the Alhambra Bookshop at Calle Reyes Católicos nº 40, in Granada.
For more information, please visit www.alhambra-patronato.es