The Pointed Tower

This turret with slightly pointed arrow slits is known as the Pointed Tower. It is the only tower in the Alhambra that is slightly Gothic in style. I suppose it must have been turned into a dwelling and the occupiers wanted to make it look distinguished. Originally, the tower was used to protect this side of the grounds, which connects with the road leading up to the Generalife.

Washington Irving was told lots of stories by us people of Granada. One of them takes place near the Pointed Turret and it is the story of the Jew Almamen. Ay habibi, if these walls could speak… they would tell us so many other stories… Like the one about the Sultana Aixa, the one we mentioned at the Lindaraixa belvedere, who fell out of favour with her husband, Muley Hacén. The sultan was taken by the beauty of a Christian woman, no less: she was Isabel de Solís, who was a prisoner in another of these towers, known as the Captive Woman’s Tower.
Well, well… the hunter was caught! Isabel converted to Islam with the new name of Soraya and she displaced Aixa. Aixa then wove a web of political intrigue to bring her son Boabdil to the throne of Granada. And, the rest, as you know, is history.



(c) (R) 2013, MUSMon com S.L.
Text (a) Carlos Madrid (2012)

Picture:
Source: Own work
Author: Julián Hernández Martínez (2013)