More Moorish and Catholic monuments in Granada (Photo-essay)

Nothing else in Granada can compare with the Alhambra (and the Generalife, which I tend to look upon as being part of the greater Alhambra complex).  Heck, few, if anything, edifices in Spain can compare with the last major -- and arguably greatest -- Moorish monument ever constructed.  (Let's put it this way: I may not have been so awed by Cordoba's magnificent Mezquita or Sevilla's sublime Real Alcazar if I had set foot in the Alhambra before visiting those two other pretty visually stunning edifices.)

Nonetheless, I did find a number of other structures that caught my eye and interest during my brief sojourn in the Andalucian city: some of them Moorish in origin, others of which are entirely Christian.  And along with the old parts of Sevilla and the UNESCO World Heritage-listed old town of Segovia, I found the historic sections of Granada to have nooks and crannies that were enjoyable to explore and the kind of streets I liked walking along...

Originally a mosque, this building's minaret was replaced 

by a bell tower after it became the Iglesia de Santa Ana

 

Dating back to the 1330s, the Corral the Carbon is the 

last remaining caravanserai of Granada's original fourteen

 

The beautiful prayer room that is one of the few surviving 

sections of the madrasah that was the first university 

in Granada, founded in 1349 by the Nasrid Sultan Yusuf I

 

Granada's most famous Christian site is the Capilla Real

(Royal Chapel) where the bodies of Queen Isabel, King Ferdinand, 

and their successors Philip the Fair(!) and Juana the Mad(!!) lie 

 

However, my favorite Christian site in Granada was the Monasterio 

de la Cartuja (Carthusian Monastery) located in the city outskirts

 

 Its rather plain exterior (and even cloister) doesn't 

prepare you for the lavishness of its church interior!

 

Puppet Ponyo understandably wide-eyed 

in the monastery's church ;b

 

And why the heck is the monastery's statue of 

Mary Magdalene so sexy looking?! :O