Granada

Granada is a city in the south of Spain. It is built on hills, and two rivers meet there.

Mountains called the Sierra Nevada are close by.

Granada lies at the end of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, on three hills where two rivers, the Darro and the Genil, meet, Universalis says. Below it spreads one of the richest farming plains of Andalusia, called the vega.

On 1 January 2025, 235,294 people lived in the city, according to Spain's National Statistics Institute. That is a little more than at the 2021 census, when 233,680 people were counted.

Universalis: at the end of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, on three hills in the heart of the Baetic mountain ranges, at the confluence of the Darro and the Genil, overlooking one of Andalusia's richest vegas; 238,000 inhabitants in 2006. It calls Málaga a rival 'twice as populous' that gains from coastal tourism (City Population, 1 January 2025: Málaga 597,173).

Instituto Nacional de Estadística (via City Population), municipality of Granada: 246,642 (census 1981), 255,212 (1991), 240,661 (2001), 241,003 (2011), 233,680 (2021) and 235,294 (register evaluation, 1 January 2025).

Look at all the houses with white walls and brown tile roofs! Green trees grow on the hill in front.

This photo looks over Granada from the Alhambra on 20 October 2024. Below the old stone wall on the left, green trees cover the slope. Beyond them, houses with white and cream walls and tiled roofs fill the city and climb a hill on the right, with tall, dark, pointed trees among them.

Far away, a flat plain stretches to a line of mountains.

Commons: own work by Holger Uwe Schmitt, 20 October 2024, CC BY-SA 4.0; description: 'View of Granada from the Alhambra.'

In the picture: the top of a stone wall and a round platform at the left edge; a wooded slope below; a narrow street with shops and a few people along the bottom right; tiled roofs and white and cream walls across the lower town and up the hill on the right; a large domed building at left; the plain and distant mountains under a blue sky with thin clouds. UNESCO: the Alhambra and the Albayzín stand on two adjacent hills separated by the river Darro.

Farms grow food on the flat land below Granada. Many visitors come to see the Alhambra and the gardens.

Granada has been a provincial capital since 1492, Universalis says. In the second half of the 19th century it grew richer from food industries using the crops of the vega, from crafts and from textiles.

Visitors come for its buildings and gardens, such as the Alhambra and the Alcazar, and for trips into the mountains. UNESCO describes the Albayzín as a mix of Moorish and Andalusian houses that blend together.

Universalis: since 1492 Granada has remained a provincial capital proud of its Muslim past; in the second half of the 19th century it consolidated its prosperity (food industry from the vega's crops, crafts, textiles). Despite the tourist appeal of its architecture (Alhambra, Alcazar, gardens, mountain excursions), it suffers from the nearness of Málaga.

UNESCO: in the Albayzín, Moorish vernacular architecture and traditional Andalusian architecture blend harmoniously, and Nasrid buildings and constructions of Christian tradition coexist.