The hydraulic systems of the Alhambra Palace [video]

Alhambra comes from the Moroccan Arabic word &quot;Alhamra&quot; which means The Red, it shares many engineering similarities with what was practiced at the time in what is today considered Morocco, some examples include:<p>- The Kasbah of Moulay Ismail in Meknes, a parallel to the Alhambra’s engineering sophistication, particularly in its hydraulic systems.<p>- Khettara Networks: Underground water channels designed to transport water down slopes without active pumping with gravity-fed systems that tap into aquifers, there are extensive networks of these particularly around Marrakech and southern regions.

This is really cool video. This Palace is also significant if you are into garden design. As it holds a kind of best in its class of Arabic&#x2F;Islamic gardens. You would be surprised how much rich people care about their gardens. So this one is an inspiration. And not just to the leather panted garden designers. But lots of people that visit this palace get inspired by the graden there.

I am particularly amazed by the water vortex drawing in air to enable the water to rise higher.

It would appear the description of the last water feature in the video &quot;07:38 Gravity Defying Medieval Technology&quot;<p>is either under-diagramed or under-explained.<p>Does someone have a reference for this? I am finding some references on wiki about hydrorams or airlift pumps... which make much more sense.

Funnily enough, the “Alhambra Palace” is a hotel that opened at the beginning of the XX century, while the “Alhambra” is the monument from the medieval age.<p>The Alhambra is not a palace, well it was actually a castle (the meaning of Alhambra is “red castle”). It had a palace inside but it was a fortification mainly.<p>Of course as Boabdil surrended the city of Granada to the Catholic Monarchs (Isabel and Fernando) in 1492, the Nazari dinasty did not enjoyed the palace many years.

This is how toilets work as well.

I saw this as well in my youtube recommendations and this post made me wonder how many people have a similar recommendation feed.<p>I watch YouTube for my interests&#x2F;hobbies, so this does not reflect a &quot;normal&quot; profile (I think). My feed is full of cooking, paintings restoration, coding, action movies, history of the middle ages in western Europe, hoof trimming (I saw a real cow close twice in my life) etc.<p>I was always wondering if there are people wil a similar feed, but never found research on that.

Only 5 seconds into the video they show plate amor in the year 1236. This is a disappointing start, I kinda like the rest, though. They have a wide reach and Alhambra is a good example to present a fascinating topic to a wide audience. It would have been great, though, to give more historical context.<p>Water management systems in the middle ages in general were incredible sophisticated and widespread. Hydropower was in use for basically everything. There are dozens of examples of castle wells more than a hundred meters deep, all cities in the late middle ages had systems of wells and channels, often cooperatively organized. Impressive examples include the water supply for breweries in Lübeck, the Stiftsarmstollen in Salzburg or the Wasserkunst of Augsburg.