Waters of Granada

The Carmen del Aljibe del Rey is around the corner from our house in the old city of Albacyn.  It turns out to be one of the delightful surprises of wandering around: rarely open but open as we passed by.

It is a "carmen"--a walled house with garden, now restored to its former self as a historical monument to Granada and the history of water management in the old city.  The neighborhood and city were inhabited by Romans, probably also by Phoenicians and Iberians before the Roman rule began in 208 BC.  After Romans, Visigoths who left few traces here.  Arabs entered in 711 and Albacyn was their city--walled, protected with towers.  To the 11th C. the Ziry dynasty reigned and this house was their palace.  The Nazrids defeated them in 1232 and built the Alhambra leaving this area to be a living and market area for common people.

Romans were major managers of water creating irrigation, clean water for fountains in their towns and storage systems.  So were their followers, the Arabs.

The area of Granada is a vast valley with rivers draining from the Sierra Nevada which has snow on it right now.  The Sierra Nevada is about 12,000 feet and captures water as snow, melting it into a series of rivers which water the valley for agriculture and which still provide water supply for the city.  My sources do not say enough about the Roman water systems so I am not that clear whether they had much or little but it is more clear how the Arabs channeled and managed water in their cities.  I think it likely that the bones of the system were Roman and expanded as the population recovered during the middle ages.

The Carmen was definitely a Roman place--pillars and carvings attest to it.  This one dates to "Year 163" but counting from what, I do not know.  Visigoths had a powerful presence in the Iberian peninsula but Granada says little about their presence.  Surely the town continued along but perhaps with little power compared to Toledo and other areas.

The Moslems, Arabs and other, entered in 711 and Albacyn was their city.

They created or resurrected the Roman water system.  Under the Moslem dynasties the Aynadamar system of water channels began near a higher point in the Sierra Nevada and fed fountains, channels and cisterns throughout Albacyn.  The Ziry dynasty were there in the 11th C. before their defeat by the Nazrids in 1232.  Their palace sits atop the largest cistern in the city--we could walk and look inside.  A well in the patio gave access inside the house and a fountain in the public square outside gave water to the public.

This cistern and palace are the high point and the Aynadamar channels water to fountains and cisterns throughout the area.  Finally the water runs into the Durro River which bisects Granada. This fountain in the garden channels water from higher to lower slopes of the carmen itself then out to the Aynadamar.


The Alhambra was built by the incoming Nasrid dynasty on the opposite hill.  They started the Alhambra on the most important defensive point on the western cliff but quickly created an irrigation system beginning at the top of their hill, the Generalife Gardens to capture the flow and gradually moved water throughout the Alhambra as they built it over three centuries.  Their water too flowed into the Durro and out to water the agricultural lands of the valley.

Text and photos by Julianne.
Photo of cistern from AguaGranada Foundation.