What you can see on the Granada webcam
The camera looks south from the Albaicín, the old hillside quarter on the other side of the Darro valley. The whole length of the Alhambra lies along the skyline: the square towers of the Nasrid palaces on the left, the bell tower of the church of Santa María and the bulk of the Renaissance palace of Charles V in the middle, and on the right the Alcazaba, the fortress at the western tip, with its watchtower. Below the walls the hillside is a mass of woodland, and behind everything rise the long grey ridges of Sierra Nevada, white with snow for much of the year. Tiled rooftops of the Albaicín fill the foreground. The picture comes as a time-lapse of the day.
Alhambra webcam: the view from the Albaicín with Sierra Nevada
From a rooftop in the Albaicín, this camera looks south across the Darro valley at the Alhambra stretched along its hill. Reading from left to right: the towers of the Nasrid palaces, the church tower of Santa María, the square block of the palace of Charles V and, at the far right, the Alcazaba with its watchtower. The woods of the Alhambra hill fill the slope below, and the ridges of Sierra Nevada close the horizon.
It is the postcard view of Granada, and the camera shows how it changes: the walls turning red as the sun goes down, haze or a clear sky over the mountains, and the snow line creeping down the peaks in winter. It comes as a time-lapse that replays the day.
The Alhambra and the Albaicín
Building began in 1238 under Muhammad I, the first Nasrid emir, and his successors turned the hill into a royal city of palaces, courtyards and gardens until Granada surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs in January 1492. Charles V later added his palace, begun in 1527 and never quite finished. The Alhambra and the Generalife gardens became a World Heritage Site in 1984, and the Albaicín joined them in 1994. The lookout of San Nicolás, in the Albaicín, is the classic place to watch the sun set on the red walls.
When to watch Granada
Granada is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. The best light on this view comes late in the afternoon, when the sun from the west turns the walls golden and red, and in winter and spring, when snow covers the peaks behind. The city stands at about 738 m (2,421 ft): July afternoons average around 34°C, while winter nights are often frosty even when the days are bright and mild.
Around Granada
The Sierra Nevada ski slopes are less than an hour away by road, and on the south side of the mountains lie the white villages of the Alpujarras. The beaches of the Costa Tropical are about an hour south.
Visiting Granada
Entry to the Alhambra is limited, with timed tickets for the Nasrid palaces, so book well ahead through the official ticket office. Granada's own airport is about 9 miles (15 km) west of the city, but most flights from the UK and Ireland land at Málaga, about 80 miles (130 km) away.