The World’s Biggest Fake (Tourists Take Note)

The Alhambra Palace, a fairytale abode of luxury-loving sultans and princesses…or so you may think…

Dear International Living Reader,

The Alhambra, in Granada, Spain, is undoubtedly one of the world’s wonders. But it is also one of the world’s biggest fakes, thanks in large measure to Washington Irving, a 19th-century American writer with a keen romantic imagination.

In 1828, while U.S. Consul in Madrid, Irving traveled through the southern Spanish province of Andalucia, finally taking up residence in the remnants of this medieval palace, which was once home to the Moorish sultans of Granada.

Irving’s room and writing desk are proudly displayed in the palace, where he collected stories and legends about the place from local peasants; and when these weren’t good enough for his fertile imagination, made them up instead.

The result was a massive volume entitled Tales of the Alhambra in which he portrayed the palace--with its splashing fountains, fragrant gardens, and elaborately decorated chambers and archways--as a fairytale abode of luxury-loving sultans and princesses; with their scheming viziers and courtiers straight out of the Arabian Nights.

Poor old Irving was so carried away by his romantic dreams that he wrote that he was always “expecting to see the white arm of some mysterious princess beckoning from the balcony or some dark eye sparkling through the lattice.” Nothing wrong with that of course, except that it inspired the Spanish tourist authorities to present the Alhambra exactly as Irving had imagined it. Today, visitors shuffle through the magnificently ornate Moorish rooms with audio-guides glued to their ears, recounting fantastic tales of princesses locked away in towers, terrible massacres in magnificent halls, and a sultan doling out justice in the Court of the Lions. But there is not an iota of verifiable historical truth in any of these stories, or indeed in the romantic names attached to the various parts of the palace, most of which come out of the ever-fertile imagination of Consul Irving.

One can understand why the Andalucian tourist authorities are anxious to make the Alhambra meet the expectations of ignorant foreign visitors. Over 6,600 tourists come here every day, paying nearly $19 a head, though not all of them to be misled by Irving’s tales.

Now don’t misunderstand me. The Alhambra is a very important place. It was built in the mid-14th century by the Moorish Nasrid dynasty that ruled Granada at a time when most of Spain was in Muslim hands. Moreover, today it remains the world’s only surviving example of a medieval Arab royal palace, which always amazes me.

I started my visit to the Alhambra when darkness had fallen on the palace. Visitors made their way through its gardens and halls relying mainly on the light of the moon, hanging above the city like a lamp. The Alhambra is a bewitching place then, with the moonlight shimmering on its pools and fountains, and palely illuminating its ornately carved walls.

But the sultan’s life was not as pleasant as these surroundings suggest. Red Death, as the Moors called a violent end, stalked the Alhambra’s halls. Of the first nine Nasrid sultans, one died in an accident, one was deposed, and the other seven were murdered by scheming rivals.

William Chamberlayne
For International Living