The Generalife was the rulers' retreat: gardens, orchards and a modest palace a short walk uphill from the main complex, far enough to be out of the palaces and close enough to walk back.
⭐ The Patio de la Acequia is the piece everyone photographs — a long channel of water with jets crossing it, running the length of a narrow courtyard. The jets are a later addition; the channel is the original idea.
The gardens are heavily replanted and the layout is not what a Nasrid gardener would recognise in detail. The bones of it — water carried along the contour, terraces stepping down, everything organised around shade — are.
Our tip
Do the Generalife last. It is uphill from everything else and it is where the crowd thins.
Generalife, photographed
