Alcazaba de Almeria - fortress of Southern Spain

Castles' gardens

Almeria was one of the cities we visited on our first trip together in march of 2014. Here we spend just half a day, as it was only a stop on our trail. We asked in the tourist office for one the most interesting thing to see in Almeria and the assistant, without any doubts, told: Alcazaba. So there we went.

A brief story:

Alcazaba de Almeria is a huge fortress (one of the biggest in Andalusia). It was built in 955 and later expanded in 1487. The fortress is equipped with the high defense walls and several towers. Moreover, on the courtyard of the castle, there are placed wells and tanks, in which the water has been stored. Although, the town in situated in very warm and dry climate, thanks to this water the castle has magnificent gardens. Furthermore, such a water storage gave possibility of survival for 20 000 people during sieges in the past. For military purposes it was used till XXth century.

View on the castle and the city from the highway

Castles' walls - cactus played also a defense role

Me on the firth courtyard of the castle

Main courtyard of the castle

Water tanks in the courtyard of the fortress

Tanks and wells of Alcazaba

View on the utter walls of the castle

What is more in Almeria:

While being in Almeria it is also worth to see the old cathedral building (Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación) from XIIIth century, which we saw during the walk to Alcazaba.

The streets of the oldest part of the town are very narrow, to give as much shadow, in hot days, as possible. Furthermore, all buildings are painted with bright colors to reduce the impact of the Sun rays on the temperature inside the buildings.

View on the old town buildings from Alcazaba de Almeria

Coming back to the car we found very interesting the trees there. They were cut in cylinder shape with a hole inside.

Trees on one of the main roads in Almeria

Characteristical shape of the trees 

And of course Almeria has big port and beautiful beaches, where you can relax, swim and get tan.

Fountain close to the port of Almeria

Here it all began...

That was the one of the first manholes which I found interesting and we photographed it. As it turned out, it began a huge collection.

My first manhole in the collection, see you soon;)