[[Image:Alhambra.jpg|thumb|right|400px|The [[Alhambra]] and the Sierra Nevada mountains]]
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'''Granada''' is an ancient [[city]] and the [[capital]] of the [[province]] of [[Granada]] located in [[Andalusia]], [[Spain]].
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It is noted for being the site of the [[Alhambra]] [[palace]], a [[Moor]]ish [[citadel]] which dominates the city.
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The city was founded by early Ibero-Celts whom traded with the [[Phoenicia]]ns and Carthaginians. The [[Greeks]] established a colony in the 5th century BC but were surplanted first by the [[Romans]] and then the [[Visigoths]]. The Moors finally captured the city in 713 AD. There were periods of unrest and possession oscillated between the native Iberians and the North African [[Muslim]] invaders with the being destroyed in 1010. In 1228 the [[Nasrid]] dynasty was established by Ibn al-Ahmar and as the [[Kingdom]] of Granada it became a vassal state to [[Castile]] in 1238. It achieved success as a trading bridge between the [[Christian]] north and Muslim [[Africa]] trading [[gold]] and supplying [[mercenary]] soldiers. The Nasrids completed the building of the palace and [[fortress]] complex in the middle of the fourteeth century.
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After being besieged by the Castilian forces of [[Ferdinand and Isabella]], the the last Muslim leader, Muhammad XII surrendered the city on January 2, 1492. This marked the end of Muslim rule in the Iberian [[peninsula]].