One Friday afternoon in the beginning of February Dan, Duke and I got together with Tom, Rene, Wendy and Patrick and walked up to admire the Alcazaba. We had been wanting to do that for quite some time, and finally it would happen. It is such a majestic fortress overlooking the city! At night spotlights light up the outside walls and it's so beautiful. This Friday not many tourists made their way up the steps to the main entrance, where we would have to pay for the privilege of admiring the Alcazaba. Dogs were not allowed, so Dan opted to wait outside with Duke, and since Tom had seen it before, he also stayed with Dan and Duke. It would be only Rene, Wendy, Patrick and I that would go farther inside the Alcazaba, and since we all had European passports, we didn't have to pay anything. It was only 250 pesetas per person, about $1.35, so it wouldn't have ruined our budgets to have to pay!

The Alcazaba, fortress, was constructed in the year 955, when Adb al-Rahman, the first caliph of Al-Andalus, granted the status of madina to the nucleus of Almeria. Along with the Alcazaba, a Great Mosque and the fortification of the urban area, between the Alcazaba and the seashore was also constructed. The Alcazaba, raised on the ruins of an earlier fortress, is situated on an isolated slope that dominates the bay. Under the fortress protection Almeria became the most important maritime outlet of Al-Andalus, being both the headquarters of the Omeya fleet and of its admiral. Great warships were built in Almeria's shipyards. Surviving Moslem texts recognize Almeria as the best market in Moorish Spain. Not only did Moslem merchants from Egypt and Syria come to its port, but also Christian merchants from France and Italy. Merchants and travellers thronged its streets and the revenue collected there surpassed by a long way those of any other seaport.

The exterior gate we walked through first, before we arrived at the booth where we should have paid. From there the walkway zigzagged up a ramp, which led through the "Gate of Justice", and soon we were inside the first sector. Alcazaba is divided up into three sectors; the first two are of Moorish design and the third being of Christian origin. At present the first sector was filled with gardens and fountains, but that was not the case from the beginning, as its original function was much different. Recent research has made it perfectly clear that this first sector was completely urbanised, with numerous houses, baths, outbuildings etc.; a residential area with the problems of water supply solved by means of the water wheel and an "aljibe", an underground chamber for collecting and storing water. At the extreme eastern end of Alcazaba stands the "Bulwark of The Salient", from where the primitive city wall, which closed off the city in the 10th century, commenced in the direction of the sea. Opposite the "Bulwark of The Salient" we walked along the esplanade of the "Wall of the Watch Tower", and looked down and out along the "Wall of the Ravine". It's an impressive stretch of curtain wall which is crossing the ravine of "The Ditch", before ascending to the "Hill of Saint Christopher". This fortification was part of the enlargement of the city's defences ordered by the Taifa King Jayran, between the years 1014 and 1028.

The second and middle sector formed a small palace City, with all the most important buildings; houses, mosque, baths, and aljibers. Although this sector has been destroyed for the most part, it represents an area of great interest in terms of history, archaeology, architecture and town planning.

After taking the city in 1489, the Catholic Monarchs ordered the construction of a castle in the highest most westerly part of the Alcazaba. When this was carried out, the greater part of the palace area was destroyed. The castle was built of strong ashlar stone walls. The circular shape of its towers and the structure of the site itself, was dictated by new military requirements after the use of artillery was introcuced. Access to this third sector, protected by three semi-circular towers and a moat, is by means of a drawbridge. The interior is organized around the "Parade Grounds", and along the northern side the "Tower of Homage" and the "Tower of the Waterwheel" are located. The "Tower of Gunpowder" dominates the extreme western end of the Alcazaba, and from this point the inhabitant had an excellent view looking out over the harbor and the city below.

Of course we had an excellent view of the city and the harbor below also, where we stopped at some lookout towers to admire the view. In the second sector we went into an aljibe, where some old artifacts were displayed. In one area there was a small mat with slippers and a drawing of stars on a big piece of cardboard, all behind a glass wall. One Arab man, who happened to be there with us, explained that it was a prayer mat and slippers for the man who prayed. The moslems wash their hands, arms up to the elbows, their heads and their feet before they can pray. In this wall there had been cutouts, but they were now closed up, but the Moslems a long time ago had turned towards the cutouts, where the sun streamed in and prayed. I guess, they would be headed in the right direction towards Mecca? Outside, along the main wall we saw big round stones, and we couldn't figure out what their purpose were? They were much too big to have been used for the cannons! Some beautiful blooming cactus also grew in the sandy and very dry soil inside the fortress. The Alcazaba was almost magical, and I could almost imagine how the people had lived there hundreds of years earlier, even though only a shell was left from those times. Back down and through the "Gate of Justice" we walked, and soon we arrived where Dan, Tom and Duke hade stayed to admire their view. After filling them in on what we had seen and where we had walked, we all headed through the "External Gate" and left the Alcazaba behind.