Granada, city, capital of Granada provincia (province) in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Andalusia, southern Spain. It lies along the Genil River at the northwestern slope of the Sierra Nevada, 2,260 feet (689 metres) above sea level. The Darro River, much reduced by irrigation works along its lower course, flows for about a mile into the city from the east before turning sharply southward to join the Genil. It is canalized and covered along much of its course through the city.
The city’s name may have been derived either from the Spanish granada (“pomegranate”), a locally abundant fruit that appears on the city’s coat of arms, or from its Moorish name, Karnattah (Gharnāṭah), possibly meaning “hill of strangers.” Granada was the site of an Iberian settlement, Elibyrge, in the 5th century BCE and of the Roman Illiberis. As the seat of the Moorish kingdom of Granada, it was the final stronghold of the Moors in Spain, falling to the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I in January 1492.
