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Carl Friedrich Heinrich Werner — Torre de las Infantas, Alhambra (Tower of the Princesses, Alhambra) (1875)

A rooftop in Morocco

A Tunisian street

Its the palace of the last Muslim dynasty of Spain

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The art of muqarnas

Some beautiful patterned columns.

1285–1290 fresco of the Conquest of Mallorca (1229) showing Almohad soldiers in battle with Christian forces, the Muslim Berber dynasty/empire that ruled large parts of North Africa and Iberia

Stand in the Patio de los Naranjos and one can see the phases it has been through: From the Almohad courtyard to the Gothic mass to the Renaissance crown on the minaret. Like Toledo and Córdoba, Seville shows a simple truth: how architecture was not erased (at least not all of

Stand in the Patio de los Naranjos and one can see the phases it has been through: From the Almohad courtyard to the Gothic mass to the Renaissance crown on the minaret. Like Toledo and Córdoba, Seville shows a simple truth: how architecture was not erased (at least not all of

After 1248, when Seville fell, christians didn’t erase the mosque so much as build over its skeleton, the chapels enclosed open façades, the prayer hall gave way to a Gothic cathedral, and the minaret became a bell tower. Later Mudéjar structures — like San Marcos — carried

The courtyard — the Patio de los Naranjos (Courtyard of the orange trees) — is the clearest window into the mosque. An open courtyard, said to be used for ablution, framed by Almohad brick arcades, fed by northern channels, ordered through shade, water, and repetition. Today it

Its surviving masterpiece is the Giralda, born as the mosque’s minaret. Just like the minaret of Kutubiyya Mosque, it has a square plan, tiered massing, sebka patterns, blind arcades, and an interior ramp wide enough for a rider on horseback (literally).

To imagine the interior, you can look to its sister: the Kutubiyya Mosque in Marrakesh, Morocco. Same logic, same rhythm — modest arches, rectangular mihrab exterior, thick arcades, and the austere geometry of a reformist Almohad era.

Construction began under Caliph Abu Yaʿqub Yusuf in 1172 and was completed and extended by his son Abu Yusuf Yaʿqub al-Mansur in the year 1198. The original prayer hall followed the typical Almohad formula: 17 aisles, horseshoe arches on square pillars, a wider central nave

In the heart of Seville, just north of the Guadalquivir, stood one of the last great mosques of al-Andalus — The Great Mosque of Seville built by the Almohads in the late twelfth century, later turned into a cathedral. Most of it was demolished, but some of it still survived. 🧵

Details of the Mihrab

Many know of Madinat al-Zahra, the caliphal city west of Córdoba. But there was also a lesser known Madina, 'Madinat al-Zâhira' (The Resplendent City) founded in 978 by al-Manṣūr (Almanzor), vizier of Hisham II. Built east of Córdoba, it was designed to rival Zahra and signal

A Moroccan artisan meticulously working on "gebs", the traditional carved plasterwork that decorates walls in Moroccan architecture.

The art of muqarnas