Map of Granada

Granada's spinal column is its north-south running Gran Ví­a or Gran Ví­a de Colón (on this map at its set zoom, it appears as the line which starts at the top of the 'n' of 'Granada'), though the centre of the city is considered to be the Plaza Nueva (under the 'd' in 'Granada') from which the Calle Elvira runs north parallel to the Gran Ví­a. Most of Granada's features of tourist interest - the Alhambra, the Albaicí­n quarter, Sacramente - lie to the east of the Calle Elvira, to such an extent that tourist information maps are often oriented with the east or north-east at the top and the Gran Ví­a running along the bottom of the map. The 'Centro' zone to the west of the Calle Elvira, though, is not without interest, the early Renaissance Granada Cathedral at the bottom of the Gran Ví­a especially being of note. The area south of the Gran Via should not be ignored either, especially if you are looking for tapas bars, thick on the ground in the Calle Navas and in the Realejo, the old Jewish quarter of Moorish Granada, squeezed between the southern walls of the Alhambra and Granada's 'Centro" district. Most of Granada's most famous sights are to the east of the Calle Elvira, however, including the world-famous Alhambra itself, the sight you must not miss in Granada, Andalusia or, come to that, Spain. On the map, unless hidden by the overview in the bottom right corner (click the arrow to close this), it appears as the tear-drop shape to the right of the word 'Granada', set in the dark green of the woods which surround the hill on which the Alhambra stands. To the east (right) of the Alhambra, the Generalife palace looks on the map rather like a modern-day sports complex with tennis courts and swimming pools. North of the Alhambra, the Albaicí­n district is Moorish Granada, the winding layout of its narrow streets unchanged since the fifteenth century. East of the Albaicí­n, or north of the Generalife, which is the same thing, the Camino de Sacromonte looks like an arched eyebrow on the map. It runs along the north bank of the River Darro, then winds up Valparaiso Hill to Sacramonte Abbey (you'll have to scroll the map a tiny bit to the left to see this). This is the hill where the Barrio de Sacromonte was made by gypsies digging cave-dwellings out of the soft sandstone hillside. It is still an important centre of gypsy culture, especially flamenco, though trapped between the inevitable modern trivialization and commercialization, centuries-old official disapproval, and the new phenomenon of speculation.

This streetmap of Granada comes courtesy of those nice young people over at Google, bless their little cotton socks. It will centre where you double click, you can pan over it using the arrows (or dragging the rectangle in the overview map in the corner), and you can zoom in and out using the '+' and '-' buttons. Neat, ain't it? I have pre-selected the "Hybrid" view, just because I happen to like the look of it — if you would rather see the street map without the aerial photographs, just click "Map" (or "Mapa" or whatever it says in your language). Or select the "Satellite" view to remove the street names and other map elements.

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