Alcazaba's Inner Castle

Last week in Malaga Zavi, Mom and I went on a tour through Alcazaba, which means citadel. Zavi has already wrote about the military fortress part of Alcazaba, so I will write more about the castle bit.

The Alcazaba would have still been a neighbourhood if this guy (unfortunately we can't remember his name but his statue is above) hadn't paid money from his own pocket to make it an archaeological site. Thanks to him it's the best preserved Alcazaba in Spain (most cities actually have one, but most are smaller than Malaga's except the Alhambra). It was built in the 11th century.

This is the mosque garden. Here the people living in the castle would meditate and pray. There was a small fountain so there was some quiet, trickling water ambience. The view was great. It would have been better back when Alcazaba was built, because the buildings were lower, so you could see farther though.

This is the gate that led into the passageway to Gibralfaro, another fortress. Gibralfaro was build mainly because if Alcazaba was attacked then all of nobles and other people living in the castle could run away to Gibralfaro.

Here is a food silo. This was a big hole in the ground were food was kept in so it was out of the sun and stayed cool. This way everyone in the castle had fresh food. There were also silos that were used as prisons.

This is a special arch called scalloped or multi foil which is popular in Moorish architecture.

The Muslims were not allowed to make representations of people or animals, so all of the decorations were either made of geometric shapes or verses from the Quran.

This is a special mailbox for the king. Here people would leave messages for him or food. This is because they didn't want to disturb him in his work or rest.

This is where the king lived. When Malaga was reconquered by the Christians the Muslims who didn't want to be killed were allowed to work and keep their faith for a while. They made decoration on the roof with no nails or glue. It's pretty amazing, isn't it?

This is the view of outside Alcazaba.

This was a recreation of the decorations that would have been in the castle. You can see more of this in Alhambra.

This is a garden where the governor could chill.

This is pool (not for swimming though, you are supposed to look at it for some reason) outside the governor's house.

There were lots MORE decorations...

Because the Muslims were not allowed to use gold, they figured out a way to glaze pottery so it was super shiny and looked like gold. They sold it to foreigners who didn't know it wasn't real gold. It was the ancient equivalent to tourist traps.

Ancient bird bath??? No, just another fountain, but the pigeons own it now.

We all had a great time at Alcazaba. The view was great, and our tour guide was very engaging. It was SUPER hot, but we survived.

Thanks for reading! And until next time, DO NOT swim in the pool.