How Medieval Islamic Engineering Introduced Water to the Alhambra

Between 711 and 1492, a lot of the Iber­ian Penin­su­la, includ­ing mod­ern-day Spain, was underneath Mus­lim rule. Not that it was straightforward to carry on to the place for that size of time: after the autumn of Tole­do in 1085, Al-Andalus, because the ter­ri­to­ry was referred to as, con­tin­ued to lose cities over the sub­se­quent cen­turies. Cór­do­ba and Seville have been recon­quered prac­ti­cal­ly one proper after the oth­er, in 1236 and 1248, respec­tive­ly, and you’ll see the inva­sion of the primary metropolis ani­mat­ed within the open­ing scene of the Pri­mal Area video above. “All around the land, Mus­lim cities have been being con­quered and tak­en over by the Chris­tians,” says the com­pan­ion arti­cle at Pri­mal Neb­u­la. “However amidst all of this, one metropolis remained uncon­quered, Grana­da.”

“Because of its strate­gic posi­tion and the enor­mous Alham­bra Palace, town was professional­tect­ed,” and there the Alham­bra stays right now. A “thir­teenth-cen­tu­ry pala­tial com­plex that’s one of many world’s most icon­ic examination­ples of Moor­ish archi­tec­ture,” writes BBC.com’s Esme Fox, it’s additionally a land­mark feat of engi­neer­ing, boast­ing “one of the crucial sophis­ti­cat­ed hydraulic internet­works on this planet, capable of defy grav­i­ty and lift water from the riv­er close to­ly a kilo­me­ter under.”

The jew­el within the crown of those elab­o­price water­works is a white mar­ble foun­tain that “con­sists of a big dish held up by twelve white delusion­i­cal lions. Every beast spurts water from its mouth, feed­ing 4 chan­nels within the patio’s mar­ble ground that rep­re­despatched the 4 rivers of par­adise, after which run­ning by­out the palace to chill the rooms.”

The fuente de los Leones additionally tells time: the num­ber of lions cur­hire­ly indi­cates the hour. This works because of an inge­nious design defined each ver­bal­ly and visu­al­ly within the video. Any­one vis­it­ing the Alham­bra right now can admire this and oth­er examination­ples of medieval opu­lence, however trav­el­ers with an engi­neer’s solid of thoughts will appre­ci­ate much more how the palace’s builders received the water there in any respect. “The hill was round 200 meters above Granada’s important riv­er,” says the nar­ra­tor, which entailed an ambi­tious mission of damming and redi­rec­tion, to say noth­ing of the pool above the palace designed to maintain the entire hydraulic sys­tem pres­sur­ized. The Alham­bra’s warmth­ed baths and well-irri­gat­ed gar­dens rep­re­despatched the lux­u­ri­ous top of Moor­ish civ­i­liza­tion, however additionally they remind us that, then as now, beneath each lux­u­ry lies an impres­sive feat of tech­nol­o­gy.

Relat­ed con­tent:

How Did Roman Aque­ducts Work?: The Most Impres­sive Obtain­ment of Historical Rome’s Infra­struc­ture, Defined

The Bril­liant Engi­neer­ing That Made Venice: How a Metropolis Was Constructed on Water

How Toi­lets Labored in Historical Rome and Medieval Eng­land

The Amaz­ing Engi­neer­ing of Roman Baths

A Thirteenth-Cen­tu­ry Prepare dinner­e book Fea­tur­ing 475 Recipes from Moor­ish Spain Will get Pub­lished in a New Trans­lat­ed Edi­tion

His­toric Spain in Time Lapse Movie

Primarily based in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His initiatives embody the Sub­stack newslet­ter Books on Cities and the e book The State­much less Metropolis: a Stroll by Twenty first-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les. Fol­low him on the social internet­work for­mer­ly often known as Twit­ter at @colinmarshall.