Alhambra Night Tour
The Alhambra night tour is an experience for your five senses. Come and enjoy a nighttime paradise
The Alhambra at night is different in every sense. Its dim light seduces your imagination, inviting you to indulge in a new experience. I am sure that you will discover something new.
This night visit will change your perspective of the Alhambra forever.
What does the Alhambra Night tour with a private guide consist of?
Feel the sensuality of the Nasrid palaces and listen to the relaxing sound of the babbling waters at night. Even if you have visited the Alhambra before, this night visit will surprise you.
This guided tour is designed to make your travel by your four senses: hear, see, feel and smell, while we visit the Nasrid palaces.
It is a sensory tour that will allow you to feel, admire and discover one of the pleasures in the Islamic culture: water.
The water at the Alhambra
In Islam, water represents purity and knowledge. It symbolizes transparency, luminosity, and adaptability.
Water is perceived as a blessing from God. This explains the significance of water in the palace areas reserved only for the sultan and his family. A sultan coming from the desert would discover in Granada a paradise with flowing rivers and snow on the mountaintops.
The biological and productive functions of water are the essence of life. However, water in the Alhambra has other ritual and aesthetic functions that we will explore in this night tour.
Water, as a metaphor, is like a drink that quenches the soul’s thirst. This is easy to understand because Islam is a lifestyle, dictated by the Koran, which seeks interior peace and the development of the soul.
According to it, the body is only a temporary appearance because the final destination is another life in Heaven. In the meantime, a piece of paradise could be enjoyed inside these courtyards.
Comares Palace a secret paradise
Gaze into the “albirca”, the reflecting pool, and take pleasure in its peace, order and silence. Here, water is like a mirror that creates depth.
Delight in this “parádeisos” in Greek or “jannan” in Arabic, a reference to the secret paradise or Garden of Eden. It represents an eternal life of peace and happiness. Revel in its light and let your imagination fly.
Breathe in the peaceful atmosphere, enhanced by the water’s reflection and the refreshing scent of myrtle on the warm Granada summer nights.
Enjoy the beauty of the Ibn Zamrak poem that we can read on one of the walls of the Alhambra:
“I am like a maid whose betrothal is desired and which in advance has arranged crown and diadem; before me is the mirror pool in whose surface takes shape my beauties.” Verses 17-18 of Diwän 307.
Water, milk, wine and honey at the Lion’s Courtyard
The Lion’s Courtyard will seduce you with his beautiful “chahar bagh”, a garden divided into four channels. The Koran tells of the four streams that flow with water, milk, wine and honey.
“…. wherein are rivers of water unaltered, rivers of milk the taste of which never changes, rivers of wine delicious to those who drink, and rivers of purified honey, in which they will have from all [kinds of] fruits and forgiveness from their Lord.” Koran 47.15
Listen to the sound of water falling from the mouths of the twelve lions and feel the charm that envelops the most internationally-known courtyard in the Alhambra.
A quick view of you will see in our Alhambra night tour
How will you best enjoy the Alhambra night tour?
We will walk together by the old Nasrid royal house, which includes three buildings known as the Nasrid Palaces. Their names are Mexuar, Palacio de Comares and Palacio de los Leones.
I will invite you to travel with me to the past. We will put ourselves in our protagonist’s shoes to understand all the important decisions that took place within these palaces’ walls.
We will then proceed to the newer Christian royal house, which is known as the Palace of Charles V. The Emperor’s palace has never had any guests. Love brought Charles V to Granada for his honeymoon and love promoted his important legacy in the city.
The Alhambra night tour for couples or groups
If you travel with your couple and you look for something special and different, this Alhambra night tour is for you.
Together you will live a truly unique and enjoyable experience at the Alhambra while reviving memories of “One Thousand and One Nights” tales.
If your situation is different and you travel with friends, this guided night visit is suitable for groups. It is a good combination with other activities.
Join this Alhambra night tour and enjoy this paradise, a pleasure for all of your four senses!
