Part of the explanation of why it looks the way it does is that it was built in a sunny part of the world.

At a much more down-to-earth level, the Alhambra looks very different from Versailles or Buckingham Palace and, though there are all sorts of complex cultural reasons for this, part of the explanation of why it looks the way it does is that it was built in a sunny part of the world.

R. Irwin, The Alhambra (2004), 127

In the context of fourteenth-century Spanish politics, it was quite something to be awarded the sobriquet 'Cruel'

Pedro the Cruel was so called because of his penchant for murder. In the context of fourteenth-century Spanish politics, it was quite something to be awarded the sobriquet 'Cruel'

R. Irwin, The Alhambra (2004), 77

A people which has hopelessly fallen in the scale of nations and deserved its humiliation

The true memorial of the Moors is seen in the desolate tracts of utter barrenness, where once the Moslem [sic] grew luxuriant vines and olives and yellow ears of corn; in a stupid, ignorant population where once wit and learning flourished; in the general stagnation and degradation of a people which has hopelessly fallen in the scale of nations and deserved its humiliation.

S. Lane-Poole, quoted in R. Irwin, The Alhambra (2004), 18