The Alhambra is Spain's most visited monument, the Nasrid palace complex whose intricacy surpasses what words or photographs can convey. The Patio of the Lions with its marble fountain, the Hall of the Ambassadors whose ceiling represents the cosmos, the Generalife gardens where water channels cool the air - these create spaces whose beauty operates on visitors before understanding arrives. The Catholic Monarchs who conquered Granada preserved the Alhambra, recognizing what destruction would lose.

The Alhambra requires advance booking, the daily limits on visitors creating the scarcity that increases demand. The allocated time slots that the reservation system provides rush visitors through palaces that reward contemplation. The best approach is to arrive early, to move slowly through the Nasrid Palaces, to accept that one visit cannot exhaust what the Alhambra offers. The Alhambra is why visitors come to Granada; its excellence justifies the journey.

The Albaicin is Granada's old Moorish quarter, the labyrinth of narrow streets climbing the hill opposite the Alhambra, its whitewashed houses and secret gardens preserving the character that the conquest did not erase. The Mirador de San Nicolas provides the classic view of the Alhambra against the Sierra Nevada, the sunset crowds that gather confirming what guidebooks promise. The quarter is UNESCO World Heritage Site, its preservation protecting what development would homogenize.

Getting lost in the Albaicin is the point - the streets that double back, the stairs that climb unexpectedly, the plazas that open without warning. The tea shops that serve Moorish mint tea, the restaurants whose terraces command Alhambra views, the shops selling North African crafts - these create atmosphere that modern construction cannot replicate. The Albaicin is where Granada's Moorish past persists, the conquest acknowledged but not entirely accepted.

The Sacromonte is Granada's gitano (Romani) quarter, the hillside where cave dwellings have housed the community that flamenco claims as origin. The caves that tourism now promotes were improvised housing that poverty required; the flamenco shows that perform nightly are commerce that tradition enables. The authenticity that visitors seek is complicated by the performance that tourism demands, the line between genuine and staged impossible to draw.

The flamenco of the Sacromonte is raw in ways that theater performances are not - the small spaces, the proximity to performers, the improvisation that small audiences allow. The shows range from tourist trap to genuine expression, the quality depending on factors that visitors cannot control. The Sacromonte is where Granada's marginalized community turned survival strategy into cultural product, the caves that were poverty now commanding prices that poverty cannot afford.

The Catholic Monarchs built their monuments in Granada to cement the conquest, the Cathedral and Royal Chapel asserting the faith that had triumphed. The Royal Chapel holds the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella, the monarchs who completed the Reconquista, expelled the Jews, and funded Columbus's voyage. The Cathedral that rises beside it took 181 years to build, its Renaissance bulk replacing the mosque that stood before.

The Catholic monuments are impressive but cold in ways the Alhambra is not - the stone that Christianity favored contrasting with the tile and plaster that Islam employed, the monumentality that conquering faith required replacing the intimacy that the conquered had created. The Capilla Real where the monarchs lie is pilgrim site and tourist attraction, the history it represents uncomfortable for those aware of what followed the conquest.

Granada maintains the tradition of free tapas with drinks that other Spanish cities have abandoned, the small plates that arrive without ordering providing the city's best budget dining. The bars that serve tapas cluster in streets around the Cathedral and throughout the Albaicin, the competition for customers keeping portions generous and quality respectable. The tapas tour that visitors conduct organically, moving from bar to bar, is Granada's best culinary experience.

The tradition persists because Granada's economy requires it - the student population that demands affordable food, the competition that free tapas creates, the culture that expects hospitality rather than pure commerce. The tapas are not fine dining; they are social institution, the shared food that lubricates the conversation that Spanish evenings require. Granada's tapas are why visitors stay longer than the Alhambra alone would justify.