We Almost Lost the Alhambra

In 1492, when Christopher Columbus sailed out of Palos de la Frontera, 220 miles west of Granada, his royal backers, the very same Ferdinand and Isabella made a move toward Granada to transition Spanish lands from Muslim to Catholic. The Alhambra had occupied its twenty-five acres of red mountain top in Andalusia for two hundred and fifty years (nearly eight generations). The dynastic city, home to over 2,000 residents, fell to the royal Spanish invaders within months, without a drop of blood shed or a single brick nicked. The system that brought water to the fortress city from a river four miles away entered through a single-entry point. An old Roman aqueduct at the outer fortification ring fed the city’s conduits, cisterns, pipes, pools, wells, water wheels, fixtures, and fountains. The Spanish royal forces in siege of the Alhambra merely cut off the water supply at that one point. The Moors surrendered, and an epoch ended. <a href="https://medium.com/@richarddiedrichs/we-almost-lost-the-alhambra-c7b3e852dc78">Learn More</a>