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Museo Arqueológico
The Museo Arqueológico displays finds from Granada province. It's curious to find ancient Egyptian amulets (brought by the Phoenicians) here.
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Museo de Bellas Artes
Upstairs at the Palacio de Carlos V, the Museo de Bellas Artes is worth a visit for its impressive collection of Granada-related paintings and sculptures. The huge Renaissance palace, Palacio de Carlos V, was begun in 1527 by Pedro Machuca, a Toledo architect, and was never completed. The imposing building is square but contains a surprising circular, two-tiered courtyard with 32 columns. Were the palace in a different setting, its merits might be more readily appreciated.
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Museo de la Alhambra
On the ground floor of the Palacio de Carlos V, the Museo de la Alhambra has an absorbing collection of Islamic artefacts from the Alhambra, Granada province and Córdoba, with explanatory texts in English and Spanish.
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Palacio de Carlos V
This huge Renaissance palace sticks out like a sore thumb in the Alhambra, because it clashes spectacularly with the style of its surroundings; were it in a different setting its merits would be more readily appreciated. Begun in 1527 by Pedro Machuca, an architect from Toledo who studied under Michelangelo, it was financed, perversely, from taxes on the Granada area's Morisco (converted Muslim) population.
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Palacio de Comares
This fabulous palacio was originally built by Emir Yusuf I, and thereafter served as the private residence for the ruler. It's built around the Patio de los Arrayanes (Patio of the Myrtles), and named after the hedges surrounding its rectangular pool and fountains. The rooms along the sides may have been quarters for the emir's many wives. Finely carved arches atop marble pillars form porticos at both ends of the patio.
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Palacio de Dar-al-Horra
Leave the Placeta de San Miguel Bajo, with its lively cafe-restaurants, by Callejón del Gallo, turn right at the end of this short lane, and you'll come to the 15th-century Palacio de Dar-al-Horra, a romantically dishevelled mini-Alhambra that was home to the mother of Boabdil, Granada's last Muslim ruler.
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Palacio de los Leones
The Palacio de los Leones is one of the most stunning structures within the Alhambra, and according to some, the royal harem. It was built in the second half of the 14th century under Mohammed V, at the political and artistic peak of Granada's emirate. The rooms of the palace surround Alhambra's most popular symbol, the Patio de los Leones (Lion Courtyard), a marble fountain that channelled water through the mouths of 12 carved marble lions.
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Palacio Nazaríes
This is the Alhambra's true gem, the most brilliant Islamic building in Europe, with its 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 stuccowork.
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Parque de las Ciencias
Granada's fun, modern Parque de las Ciencias, a science museum 2km south of the centre, has plenty of hands-on exhibits and a special room for children to explore basic scientific principles. The planetarium has sessions roughly every hour.
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Patio del Cuarto Dorado
You pass into this courtyard from the Mexuar, with a small fountain and the Cuarto Dorado (Golden Room) on the left. This patio was where the emirs would give audiences to their subjects. The Cuarto Dorado takes its name from its beautiful wooden ceiling, which was gilded and redecorated in the time of the Catholic Monarchs. On the other side of the patio is the entrance to the Palacio de Comares through a beautiful façade of glazed tiles, stucco and carved wood.
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Placeta de San Miguel Bajo
Placeta de San Miguel Bajo has lively café-restaurants.
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Plaza Bib-Rambla
The large, popular Plaza Bib-Rambla has restaurants, flower stalls and a central fountain with statues of giants. This square was the scene of jousting, bullfights and Inquisition burnings.
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Plaza de la Trinidad
The Plaza de la Trinidad has a couple of good tapas bars.
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Royal Chapel
The Capilla Real, adjoining the cathedral, is Granada's outstanding Christian building. Spanish-history fans will enjoy this connection with the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Fernando, who commissioned this elaborate Isabelline Gothic style building as their mausoleum. It was not completed until 1521, hence their temporary interment in the Convento de San Francisco.
