Albaicín

Albayzín

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	Granada Province, Spain
Coordinates	37°11′N 3°35′W / 37.18°N 3.59°W / 37.18; -3.59
Criteria	Cultural: (i), (iii), (iv)
Reference	314-002
Inscription	1984 (8th Session)
Extensions	1994
Endangered	–
Location of Albayzín
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El Albayzín (Arabic: ٱلْبَيّازِينْ‎‎) also Albaicín (Spanish pronunciation: [alβai̯ˈθin]), is a district of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It retains the narrow winding streets of its Medieval Moorish past dating back to the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. It was declared a world heritage site in 1984, along with the famous Alhambra.

It was populated in Iberian period and Roman dispersed settlement existed. There is no data before the arrival of the Zirid Berber Islamic settlement, so it is assumed that the city was abandoned since the end of the Roman Empire until the founding of the Zirid kingdom in 1013 when it was surrounded by big walls. According to some linguists it owes its present name to the inhabitants of the city of Baeza who banished her after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, settled in this area of Granada outside the existing walls. Other linguists claim that the name comes from the Arabic al-bayyāzīn (as it's pronounced with imala, al-bayyīzīn), meaning the suburb of falconers. However, the fact that in Andalusia there are many other neighborhoods with that name, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz), Alhama de Granada, Salobreña and Huéneja (Granada), Antequera and Villanueva de Algaidas (Málaga), Baena (Córdoba) porcuna and Sabiote (Jaén), and Constantina (Sevilla), casts doubt on this thesis. There are also neighborhoods with that name in other parts of Spain, as in Campo de Criptana (Ciudad Real), result of the expulsion of the Moors after the Revolt of the Alpujarras or in Pastrana (Guadalajara), this neighborhood created by Doña Ana de Eboli to accommodate the Moorish Kingdom of Granada.