by Miren Zabaleta
Home >> Walking Up the Mulhacén
If you answered no to the first question, let me tell you that the Mulhacén is the highest mountain in the Iberian Peninsula. It is located in the Sierra Nevada range, close to the city of Granada. The nearby Pico del Veleta and the Alcazaba mountain make the Sierra Nevada National Park an ideal destination for those who love hiking.
There are several marked routes and tracks from where you can enjoy the silence of nature, especially in the summer. You don’t need to be an experienced mountaineer to walk up to the top of the Mulhacén, as no climbing skills are needed. Nevertheless, if I tell you to be cautious, I’m certainly giving you good advice.
But what you can find there is not just a matter of natural beauty; you also get caught up in the legend hidden beneath the mountain. In fact, I learned that the Mulhacén was named after Muley Abul Hassan, or Muley Hacén, as the Christians called him. He was the penultimate Muslim king of Granada.
Muley Abul Hassan was married to the sultaness Aixa, mother of his heir, Abu Abdullah. Also known as Boabdil, Abu Abdullah was doomed to be the last Moorish king of the Nasrid dynasty, the last Moorish king of Granada.
The legend says that a Castilian noblewoman named Isabel de SolÃs was kidnapped by Nasrid warriors, and that she was taken to the Alhambra. When the king, Muley Abul Hasssan, met her, he fell desperately in love with her and left aside all state matters.
Isabel embraced the Islam religion and became the king’s favourite wife. The sultaness Aixa, mother of Boabdil, was jealous and never forgave the king for such a dishonour. She helped her son fight against Muley Abul Hassan and his brother, Abu Abd Allah (or El Zagal, his Christian name).
Legend has it that after abdicating in favour of his brother, Muley Abul Hassan was buried at the top of the mountain.
Maybe it was the wind, or perhaps it was just my mind, but what if I tell you that at the top of the mountain, I heard a voice whispering “Isabel, Isabel, Isabel…â€?
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Hello.
Nice article!
I also enjoy going hiking (in Madrid mainly): fresh air, silence and the joy of being surrounded by “nature”.
Here in Madrid we have “La Pedriza” which is also a great area for hiking but where people get lost and have to be recued all the time. So yes, it is always good to take precautions just in case.
Regards,
Cristina
A very romantic story!
In Mendoza, right on the slope of The Andes Range (were I was born),
mountains are part of our daily life. I imagine that it will be like the sea
for you…
I’m telling you this because, if some time you have the opportunity to go
to Argentina, you could enjoy being in that region very much. It’s full of
incredible places where you can do hiking… but you should know we don’t have kings buried in the summits who could whisper to you the name of his love.
Gabriela
Because I was born in Granada and I grew up there, I enjoyed a lot reading this letter.
I’ve a lot memories from my childhood and puberty in Granada, living in front of Sierra Nevada range (because it’s near 3500 m high, you can see the snow-capped mountain range from every place of Granada).
And apart of the stories told by Miren (lovely and nice true stories), Sierra Nevada is the reservoir of Granada (the city and the surrounding villages).
Dear Miren, next time you go to Granada I recommend you visiting La Alhambra, this is a singular castle and palace, unique in the world (I used to go there when I was a student). Don’t forget to book your visit thought Internet.
And have some “cañas y tapas�, it’s worth it.
Isabel de Solis probably had the Stockholm syndrome. It was cruel for Muley Abdul Hassan’s soldiers to kidnap her in the first place. I totally sympathise with Aixa.
Anyway, it’s a very interesting legend. If ever I climb the Mulhacen, I’ll imagine I’m Indiana Jones searching for the king’s tomb!
Thank you all for your comments!
Ha, ha, ha! Paola, I totally agree with you! Poor Aixa!
Now, see what she told his son Boabdil, when they were forced to leave Granada:
“You do well to weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man.”
Be it in Madrid (next time I’m there, I’ll visit “La Pedriza”, sure), be it in Argentina (oh! I can’t wait to visit this country!)... hiking is great! It makes you be part of nature, part of the place you are visiting!
And, what can I tell you about Granada? Lovely city! The Alhambra is certainly beautiful! (I know! We were queuing for more than two hours!!)
By the way, who can tell me what the “mala follá GranaÃna” is?
Right now the idea of walking up a hill, let alone a mountain, let alone one of Europe’s highest peaks...all in the heat of southern Spain…makes me say “no way, José” and go for the cañas & tapas mentioned by the anon… (ooh…difficult to spell!!!!!) ...by one of the blogsters who doesn’t identify him or herself!
Mind you, the way you describe it Miren, with the legend included too, makes it sound like a mountain worth visiting.
(My own imagination suggests that you weren’t the only person/ people on the mountain that day. Paco & Isabel from Mostoles were there too.
“Isabel, Isabel, Isabel…don’t walk so fast, I can’t keep up with you!” ha ha!!
Oh! I see! So, it was Paco from Móstoles, and not Muley Hacén…
Ha, ha, ha!
Anyway, another example of how men do ANYTHING for love… mmm… er… do they?
???
:-) !!
Granada is a beautiful place. La Alhambra is gorgeous.
Hello Miren !
It is a beautiful historÃa, Granada has Mágia and a lot of histories!
If I know Sierra Nevada and have been much next to the Mulhacén. I love the mountain; next to there in the Alpujarras there are many routes to enjoy.
I live in Seville and one of my favorite destinations to escape for two or three days in Granada and his environment.
I have loved your article.
see you soon
Reyes.
My father and grandfather go walking in the mountains every Sunday morning, rain or shine. They start at 7 o’clock! They say that I must one day be a mountaineer, too. Must I?
I have a strange fixation with “mountain songsâ€? like “Climb Ev’ry Mountainâ€? and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,â€? but will admit that I am the complete opposite of the mountain-going type. (Maybe I climb other kinds of mountains.) Nevertheless, thanks(?) to my mountaineering husband (though this was before he became my husband), I can say that I have walked to the top of a mountain. Compared to the Mulhacén, it’s a hill. Among the mountains that form Madrid’s Guadarrama range, the Abantos is the balcony that directly overlooks the grid of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Philip II must have gone up there many times to stare at his grand architectural project and think of his empire where the sun would never set (because when the sun was down here, it would be rising in his Philippines). He wasn’t buried up there, though. But maybe I’m making mountains out of molehills. More importantly, let’s welcome Miren to the English Weekly. A puff of fresh air! She has previously written in the Spanish Weekly and when our English Weeklies make it to the Spanish section, it will much be thanks to her translation or correction work and her never-complaining, sunny disposition that, who knows, may be the result of roughing it and visiting legendary mountaintops.
We didn’t make it to Granada but we simply must go! Maybe we’ll make it up to the Mulhacén but…I doubt it.
See, I am from Iowa. Iowa’s highest point is at 509 metres. Iowa’s average elevation is 335 metres. That means that Iowa’s highest point is basically a hill. We like hills; mountains are something entirely different. The word mountain to an Iowan provokes images of the Rockies or the Alps, “exotic,” far-away places. Now I look out my window and see them. Perhaps I don’t appreciate them as much as I should because I certainly don’t climb them. “Going to the mountain” for us is traipsing around Peñas de Aia in autumn or having a picnic on UlÃa in the spring. The beach is where we go…whether you like it or not!
Climb ev’ry mountain, indeed; metaphorically for some, literally for others.
And I do not know who that granaÃna is, unfortunately!
Thank you all!
And thank you Gina, for your words!
Yes, Reyes, that’s the word: MAGIA! Granada, the Alhambra and the Mulhacén are magical!
Oscar, I think that being a mountaineer is a great idea. I’m sure your dad and grandad have many wonderful stories to tell you.
Wes, about that “mala follá granaÃna”... a student told me that it has something to do with how bad-tempered people are in Granada…
Now, what do the “granaÃnos” have to say?
:-) !
Mountains are mystical places traditionally – whether it’s Mount Sinai where Moses met God or the Conmaicne Rein Mountain where the Irish Tuatha De Danann (the ancestors of the leprechauns) first settled.
Mountains, like oceans, put things in perspective. They remind us that the squabblings and problems or urban existence are not the only things life has to offer.
Fascinating, Dónal!
:-) !