Alhambra
Alhambra names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Alhambra the ancient palace and fortress of the Moorish kings of Granada
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the ancient palace and fortress of the Moorish kings of Granada. The name, meaning the red, is derived from the red, sun dried bricks used in the construction of the outer walls. The Alhambra is situated on elevated ground overlooking the city of Granada, Spain, and commands a magnificent view of mountains, rolling hills, and valleys. It was constructed by the Moors about one hundred and fifty years before the discovery of America. It was taken from the Moors by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. A massive outer wall pierced by gateways and flanked by thirteen towers incloses an area of thirty-five acres. Although fallen into neglect, the gardens are still described as well wooded, and as intersected by shady walks, revealing charming waterfalls and cooling fountains. Singing birds and sweet scented flowers add to the delight of the traveler. A number of government buildings were contained in this area, the chief of which was the Royal Palace. The name Alhambra is applied properly to the entire fortress. The palace of the Alhambra was called by the Moors, Alcazar. This palace consisted of numerous halls and buildings arranged chiefly about two rectangular courts. The Court of the Fish Pond is about one hundred and forty feet long by seventy-four broad. It receives its name from a pond in the center full of gold fish. The doorways, windows, rows of pillars, light arches, and colonnades about this court have the lightness and grace of palm trees. It is hardly proper to describe their beauty in the present tense, for an earthquake in 1821 and a fire in 1890 have left little of this court to admire. The Court of Lions, somewhat smaller, derives its name from a white alabaster fountain in the center, supported by twelve lions. When this fountain was in order a jet of water rose from its center, fell back into the basin and was discharged through the mouths of the twelve marble lions. The court is entirely surrounded by an arcade or low gallery resting on one hundred and twenty-four white marble columns. The floor is paved with colored tiles, and the walk beneath the gallery with white marble. The arches, galleries, filigree walls, and the light domes of the roof are composed of open tiling, adorned with stucco work of wonderful lightness and grace. Arches and ceilings seem to hang like cobwebs or gauze in the shape of foliage and arabesques. Of the many halls that of the Ambassadors is perhaps the most imposing. It is thirty-seven feet square with an arched ceiling seventy-five feet in height. This was the grand reception room where the Moorish monarch sat enthroned on state occasions, such as the reception of foreign ambassadors. The walls are covered with delicate stucco work, the ceiling is inlaid with diversified work of white, blue, and gold, imitating stars set in the heavens. So wondrously is marble, brick, and stucco fashioned and put together, that, seen from the end of a vista, the combination of pillars, arches, windows, and walls has the appearance of lace curtains hung and looped in graceful fashion. Doorways, arches, domes, colonnades, fountains, filigree work, trellised windows, blue, brown, red, and gold colorings, sparkling fountains, soft couches, and the lightness and grace of it all, make the Alhambra a veritable fairyland that stands unapproached in the history of architecture. It is a magic group of palaces, possible only to the same order of minds that created the Arabian Nights' Entertainments . Washington Irving's Alhambra is considered an excellent account. See Moors ; Architecture Alhambra. Hall of Abencerrages
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the famous palace of the Moorish kings of Granada, situated on a hill N. of the town of Granada. It is inclosed in a walled area of 35 acres. The chief entrance to the inclosure is by a horseshoe arch, called the Gate of Judgment, 28 feet high, surmounted by a square tower. From this a narrow passage leads to the Plaza de los Algibes, where, on the left, is the ruined Alcazaba, the fortress of the Alhambra, and on the right is an unfinished palace of Charles V. Behind the latter is the Alhambra. Outside, the palace is cold and plain looking, but within, in the most ornate style of the East, are many halls, porticoes, courts, chambers, gardens, and mosaic pavements in red, blue, and yellow colors. The stone lacework is covered with inscriptions from the Koran and Arabic poetry. The Court of the Myrtles contains a large fish pond, and the famous Alhambra vase, discovered in the 16th century and dating from 1320. It is nearly 5 feet high, and is enameled in white, blue, and gold. The Hall of the Ambassadors, the largest in the Alhambra, is contained within the tower of Comares, on the N. wall. The Court of the Lions is one of the most notable of the courts, having a length of 116 and a breadth of 66 feet. It is surrounded by a gallery supported by white marble pillars. Its pavements and walls are covered with colored tiles; and in its center is the Fountain of the Lions, an alabaster basin supported by 12 lions of white marble, out of whose mouths spouted the water from the basin. The Hall of the Abencerrages, the most beautiful one in the palace, is surrounded by an arcade with marble arches. This hall was the scene about 1480 of the massacre of the family of the Abencerrages, by King THE RED CASTLE, ALHAMBRA Boabdil. Opposite is the Hall of the Two Sisters, which takes its name from two large slabs of marble, each 15 feet long, which are embedded in the floor. The ceiling is made of about 5,000 stalactites, giving a curious and beautiful effect. The palace was begun by Ibn-el-Ahmar in 1248, and was completed by Mohammed III. in 1314. It was taken by the Spaniards in 1491, and was entered by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. It suffered at the hands of Charles V., and the French blew up several of its towers. The Alhambra is the most remarkable and most perfect specimen of Moorish art to be found in Europe.
Alhambra a city of California
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of California, in Los Angeles co. It is on the Southern Pacific and Santa Fé and the Pacific Electric Interurban railroads. It has several private schools and the San Gabriel Mission church, founded in 1771. The city is residential, but has some industries tries . Pop. (1910) 5,021; (1920) 9,096.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 account described gardens "fallen into neglect" and courts wrecked by the 1821 earthquake and an 1890 fire, and Collier's in 1921 still noted a "ruined Alcazaba"; since then decades of state conservation have reversed most of that decay. The Alhambra was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 and is now Spain's most-visited monument, drawing roughly two to three million people a year under timed, capped ticketing. The Fountain of the Lions, which both entries described only in the past tense ("when this fountain was in order"), was dismantled, cleaned and returned to the Court of the Lions with its water flowing again after a restoration completed in 2012. One story has faded rather than the stones: the massacre of the Abencerrages that Collier's dates to about 1480 is now generally treated by historians as legend rather than recorded event.
Written for this edition, 2026.