Construction of The Alhambra Begins

In 1238, Muhammad I Ibn al-Ahmar, founder of the Nasrid dynasty and the Emirate of Granada, began constructing the Alhambra on the Sabika hill overlooking Granada, Spain. The complex incorporated a military fortress, royal palaces, and a self-contained citadel with its own water supply channeled from the Sierra Nevada. Construction continued under successive Nasrid rulers over the next century, with the defining palace architecture completed primarily under Yusuf I and Muhammad V in the 14th century. It remains the only fully preserved palatine city from the Islamic period in the Iberian Peninsula.