Baño de la Mezquita, Alhambra

Located within the extraordinary Alhambra palace complex on the Sabika hill above Granada, the Baño de la Mezquita is a Nasrid-era bath associated with the palace mosque. The Alhambra's bathing culture reached its zenith in the celebrated Comares Baths (Baños Reales) with their alabaster columns, star-shaped skylights, and polychrome tile work, but this smaller mosque bath recalls the more intimate devotional dimension of the hammam, inseparably linked to Islamic ritual purity. Together the Alhambra's bath chambers represent the pinnacle of Andalusian architectural achievement, fed by the elaborate water systems of the Generalife and designed to make cleanliness a form of aesthetic and spiritual experience.