Q 01/05

The Alhambra sits on Sabika hill, an outcrop of which mountain range?

A) The Pyrenees

B) The Sierra Nevada

C) The Sierra Morena

D) The Cantabrian Mountains

Answer · why

B) The Sierra Nevada

The hill had held earlier fortresses and an 11th-century palace before the Alhambra was begun.

Q 02/05

The name Alhambra comes from Arabic al-Hamra, meaning what?

A) The beautiful one

B) The high one

C) The red one

D) The fortress of God

Answer · why

C) The red one

The full form was al-Qal'a al-Hamra, 'the red fortress'; the walls are rammed earth coloured by iron oxide in the local clay.

Q 03/05

Which river carves the ravine on the Alhambra's north side, separating it from the Albaicín?

A) The Tagus

B) The Genil

C) The Guadalquivir

D) The Darro

Answer · why

D) The Darro

The Zirids once controlled its water with a sluice called the Gate of the Tambourines.

Q 04/05

The Alhambra is the only well-preserved royal palace surviving from which civilization?

A) Ancient Rome

B) Medieval Islam

C) Visigothic Spain

D) Byzantium

Answer · why

B) Medieval Islam

It is also one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and contains notable Spanish Renaissance work.

Q 05/05

Which 11th-century Jewish administrator of the Zirids built a palace on the Sabika hill?

A) Hasdai ibn Shaprut

B) Maimonides

C) Samuel ibn Naghrillah

D) Judah Halevi

Answer · why

C) Samuel ibn Naghrillah

Known in Hebrew as Samuel ha-Nagid, his palace reportedly had gardens and water features; nothing of it survives.