How Medieval Islamic Engineering Introduced Water to the Alhambra
Between 711 and 1492, a lot of the Iberian Peninsula, including modern-day Spain, was beneath Muslim rule. Not that it was simple 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 had 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 House video above. “All around the land, Muslim cities had 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 at present. 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 vital sophisticated hydraulic internetworks on the earth, capable of defy gravity and lift water from the river close toly a kilometer beneath.”
The jewel within the crown of those elabocharge waterworks is a white marble fountain that “consists of a giant dish held up by twelve white fantasyical lions. Every beast spurts water from its mouth, feeding 4 channels within the patio’s marble flooring that repredespatched the 4 rivers of paradise, after which running viaout the palace to chill the rooms.”
The fuente de los Leones additionally tells time: the number of lions curhirely indicates the hour. This works due to an ingenious design defined each verbally and visually within the video. Anyone visiting the Alhambra at present can admire this and other examinationples of medieval opulence, however travelers with an engineer’s forged of thoughts will appreciate much more how the palace’s builders bought the water there in any respect. “The hill was round 200 meters above Granada’s major river,” says the narrator, which entailed an ambitious venture 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 peak of Moorish civilization, however additionally they remind us that, then as now, beneath each luxury lies an impressive feat of technology.
Related content:
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
Historic Spain in Time Lapse Movie
Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His tasks embody the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the ebook The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll via Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on the social internetwork formerly often known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
