Alcazaba & Castillo de Gibralfaro, Malaga, Spain

This is a great Muslim Fortress to see and compare with Christian Castles. It is in the heart of Malaga Spain.  Malaga is a beautiful city and is one of the oldest cities in Europe.  Its lifespan is over 2800 years.  Malaga used to be a walled city and parts of the wall have survived.


The Alcazaba is a very elegant structure.
The arches are elegant.  This is a door to a balcony with a view complete with a mosaic floor. 


The Alcazaba is in the heart of the city and the Castillo de Gibralfaro is further up the mountain and seemingly floats above the city.  The views are stupendous all the way up this 20-minute steep incline to the Castillo, which is the fortress section.






The Bullring of Malaga city.


At the base of Alcazaba is a 4000-year-old Roman Theatre that was discovered in 1961.  Roman ruins are throughout Europe wherever the Romans conquered they left behind their architecture and culture just waiting to be uncovered.




Ancient Roman Theater to the right.





Orange trees of Malaga.





The base of the Alcazaba is to the right.









It is only a 20-minute walk up to the Castillo but it feels like 40.  It helps that there are many stops and beautiful views to take pics of.
The Alcazaba was built by the Muslims in the years 1057-1063.  It is very different from other castles that I have seen.  I would have to say that this is more elegant with its terraces, fountains, pools and architecture.





The arches are constructed differently and have a distinct look.  Christian fortresses would be a smoother arch and more rounded.









The front door to Alcazaba is even ornate wrapped in studded iron banding.



Some Roman touches were sprinkled throughout the Alcazaba.



Very ornate touches to the upper walls leading to a vaulted bricked barrel ceiling.  The bottom half of the photo is sculptured marble.
We took a break after visiting Alcazaba and went and had lunch across the street.  We had Tapas and wine.  We were ready to take the hill and proceeded up the steep incline.

We all enjoyed visiting both of these sites but we underestimated how long it would take.  It takes about 3-4 hours to get a good look at both.



On the way up the mountain to Castillo de Gibralfaro.







One of the decorative vaulted ceilings in the Castillo fortress.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Climbing Mt. Solmar with The Dogs, Los Cabos, Mexico

Image
We heard about this climb from Darren's niece who had done the exact climb last week.  Whenever you do a search on hikes in the Los Cabos area, this Mount Solmar hike does not come up.  I would highly recommend it though because it was a great deal of fun and it was challenging.  I went with 3 friends and to top it all off there was a bunch of dogs walking with us up the mountain.   Enrique runs a Dog Training Center.  He started this hike with dogs to train them most likely. And now people join him for free and climb up Mount Solmar with the dogs. The dogs love it and they are barking and in a bit of a frenzy before you go.  You take an Uber or drive your car to the dog training center and you wait in line at 8:00 a.m. this hike accompanied by dogs is available every morning except Saturday.   Kent, Joelle, Craig and I in the line-up to get into see the dogs and start the climb. Enrique led us into the compound and gave us a talk on the area...
Read more

Ixtapa Island- Ixtapa, Mexico

Image
This is Coral Beach on Ixtapa Island The kids wanted to go to Ixtapa Island because this is where the best snorkeling is located in the Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo areas.  When we first started asking around and getting price quotes for this, we were getting prices anywhere from 90 - 110 American per person for a day trip to Ixtapa Island.  Anyone who knows us know that we hate organized tours because you get herded around like cattle, you don't get to make your own decisions and 90% of the time they are a rip-off for something that you can organize yourself.   Once the kids found out how expensive it was they began to research this trip and they realized that it's quite achievable to do without a tour or a tour guide for a fraction of the cost. We first took a taxi from Hilton Grand where we were staying to Playa Linda, where the Pier is located for the water taxis.  Our taxi from the Hilton Grand cost 300 pesos to get the 4 of us to Playa Linda where a lot of marke...
Read more

Kuilau Ridge Trail - Kauai, Hawaii

Image
My son Dax wanted to do this trail because it was in the interior of the island in the Rain Forest of Kauai. Some unusual Dr. Seuss like plants behind Kim. There is quite a bit of parking available before and after the bridge. There are washrooms available, they are super gross of the non flushing kind and the smell was really bad worse than your average outdoor Biffy. The trail begins at the yellow metal gates and there is a lot of elevation to climb up for the first section.  Eventually you get to the pretty views of a multitude of greens. You can literally take a ton of photos because every view is gorgeous! The forest is thick with some scary steep drop offs but the trail is wide enough for safety  You can continue for a longer trail for another 3.2 miles past the bridge but our hike was already going to be 2 hours round trip so we stopped at the bridge. That was enough beauty for one day. I highly recommend this hike and gave it a 5 out of 5 because it was moderately chal...
Read more