The Alhambra wasn't just a palace. It was a palatine city, a walled hilltop complex where Granada's Nasrid rulers lived surrounded by courtiers, craftsmen and around 2,000 people needed to keep the whole enterprise running.

Most of it was built during the 1300s, and its walls are covered in text: Quranic verses, royal proclamations, and, everywhere you look, the Nasrid motto, "Only God is victorious."

Water was power here. In the Patio de los Arrayanes, a pool nearly six feet deep was used purely for reflection, an obscene luxury in dry Granada. In the Palace of the Lions, twelve unique marble lions synchronise eleven fountains at different heights across the palace.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours guide you through the Mexuar, the throne room and the Court of the Lions, explaining how each space worked, what its inscriptions say, and what the original blaze of colour would have looked like.