NARRATOR: In the sun-baked South of Spain,
between Europe's only desert
and the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains...
...lies a man-made Garden of Eden,
a spectacular palace perched above an emerald forest.
This is a castle not just of gold and marble...
...but of life and water.
A temple to nature's beauty,
and a place where animals find refuge...
...and fight for survival.
Here, water pulses like blood in the veins,
and the stone walls project permanence and power.
This is a fortress filled with knowledge and art,
a place where human history and the natural world meld into one.
This is the Alhambra.
The castle of Alhambra rises above the plains of Andalucía
on the Iberian Peninsula,
a luxurious haven that has endured for centuries.
They call it "The Red One",
its walls hewn from the red clay on which it sits.
The Moors - Muslims from North Africa -
built this magnificent hilltop fortress in the 13th Century...
...after conquering the region in 711 AD.
It was a beacon of strength and power,
a fertile jewel in an otherwise barren expanse.
This is an arid and dramatic landscape...
...wedged between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
Water is precious here,
and when the Moors built Alhambra,
they celebrated it.
They brought to life descriptions of Eden
from the Quran,
creating a lush and fertile paradise.
Rich garden ponds and fountains transform the hilltop palace
into a life-giving retreat.
The wildlife of the region has taken full advantage.
The Iberian Bluetail dragonfly is queen of these ponds.
With her multifaceted eyes,
she can perceive even the slightest movements.
(Sound of running water)
She sees the world in vivid slow motion.
The action around her appears three times slower
than it actually is.
Her two sets of wings operate independently,
allowing her to maneuver effortlessly.
A single dragonfly can devour hundreds of insects a day,
making her a welcome resident of the castle.
She's not alone.
Dozens of other species of dragonfly and damselfly
call the lush castle grounds home.
They're prolific breeders,
though their anatomy makes for an unusual mating ritual.
First, the male on top uses an appendage
at the end of his abdomen to grasp the female by the neck.
Then she curls her abdomen under him to align their sex organs.
Hers are at the tip of her abdomen.
His are closer to the base of his body.
The result is an awkward heart-shaped mating wheel
that is unique in the animal kingdom.
(Dragonflies buzz)
NARRATOR: After mating is complete,
the female deposits her eggs in the water
while the male maintains his grip on her neck,
just to make sure no other male sneaks in
to mate with her after him.
(Toads croak)
NARRATOR: A nearby toad has his own amorous intentions.
He drapes himself on the back of a much larger female.
then hangs on for dear life.
Where the damselflies rely on finesse and contortion,
the toads opt for bear hugs and spooning.
The maneuvering is less graceful,
but the result is the same.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: When the mating's done,
the fertilized eggs are deposited
into the Alhambra ponds like silky strings of dark pearls.
Over the next few weeks,
the eggs divide and slowly transform.
Alhambra too has transformed over the centuries...
...from a small Muslim stronghold
built on Roman ruins in the 8th century
to an imposing and beautiful fortress
that provided protection for humans and animals alike.
Moorish poets described it as "a pearl set in emeralds."
In the sheltered castle ponds, the dividing toad pearls
eventually become clusters of sluggish proto-tadpoles.
Still unable to swim,
they hide under vegetation near the surface as they grow.
The ponds are a perfect nursery,
and they develop quickly into plump, mobile tadpoles.
The dragonfly eggs are hatching as well,
and the sinister-looking larvae are eager for action.
Known as nymphs, they lack wings,
and breathe by pumping water in and out of their abdomen
and over their internal gills.
The resulting water jets also work like an afterburner,
for quick acceleration.
The nymph initially sits motionless
as a tadpole wanders by.
But he won't let the potential meal get away.
Like a leopard, he stalks,
blending into his surroundings.
His kill shot is quick and lethal,
a flick of his powerful, extendable lower jaw.
Caught in the nymph's vice-like grip,
the tadpole is helpless as it's eaten alive.
These seemingly tranquil waters
belie the battles that go on within them,
and the constant struggle for dominance among predators.
It doesn't take long for hunter to become hunted.
Observing the hungry nymph
is an even stranger and more deadly creature:
a water stick,
which hides in plain sight by masquerading as a twig.
The water stick is an air breather
that uses a long tube
that extends up from its abdomen like a snorkel.
It watches quietly as the nymph polishes off the tadpole.
Then, belly full,
it heads straight into the water stick's target zone.
With a reflexive snap of its spring-loaded front legs,
recent diner becomes reluctant dinner.
The water stick stabs the nymph with its beak,
injecting toxic saliva that liquefies its insides.
Such is the natural pecking order of predator and prey.
That same power hierarchy existed
with the human inhabitants of the castle as well.
In its prime, the fortress housed soldiers
and court officials.
But the most spectacular structures
were reserved for the rulers and their families.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: These stunning masterpieces were commissioned
in the mid-13th century by the Moorish ruler,
Mohammed ibn Al-Ahmar.
Prohibited by Muslim law from creating images of Allah,
he instead embraced repeating geometric patterns
and decorative calligraphy.
It was Moorish Arabesque design at its zenith.
Nature was ever-present and embraced.
Alhambra's architects took inspiration from the Quran.
It depicts the Garden of Eden
as a peaceful place for humans and animals.
(Insect buzzes)
NARRATOR: The Moors wanted Alhambra to be that Eden,
symbolically, but in real life, as well.
(Birds sing, insects buzz)
NARRATOR: The gardens were lush and peaceful.
Central to their design
were representations of Eden's four rivers,
as described in the Quran.
(Birds sing)
NARRATOR: Here they're man-made, but tranquil nonetheless.
Alhambra sits on the mountain called Sabika,
which rises above the city of Granada.
From here, the Moors ruled over their Iberian Kingdom.
The shaded galleries and watered gardens of the castle
provided respite from the stifling Andalusian heat.
Residents outside the walls
must find other ways to stay cool.
A female scorpion shelters underground
in the heat of the day.
She normally hunts in the cool of the night,
but at the moment, she's got other concerns.
Scorpions give birth to live young,
and her hundred or so babies
climb onto her back for safekeeping.
She'll protect them there for 10 to 20 days,
until their exoskeletons harden.
Unless times are tough, in which case, she'll eat them.
Another of the desert locals
is the deceptive Iberian worm lizard.
It looks like a worm with its blunt head and ringed body,
but it's actually a reptile,
a lizard with eyes, lungs, a spinal cord,
and a set of tiny sharp teeth, but no legs.
It eats insects and larvae, but out here
it has its own predators to be wary of.
The false smooth snake is a small,
venomous lizard-hunter.
It uses its keen sense of smell
to locate prey in the craggy rocks.
The snake usually stays above ground,
but it's caught wind of the worm lizard.
The lizard retreats into its narrow tunnel,
using chemical markers to find its way around.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: Deeper they go.
But the snake is perhaps a little too well-fed,
and his girth stops him up.
It's a narrow escape for the lucky lizard.
Outmaneuvered underground,
the snake regroups in the warm sun...
...waiting for easier prey to wander by.
The serpent blends into the terrain...
...just like Alhambra blends into the rock
that forms its foundation.
The red bricks in the unadorned walls
were made from the iron-rich earth...
...and the castle perches on Sabika
as if it was carved from the mountain itself.
(♪♪♪)
It's one of the ways the Moors embraced the nature around them.
That commitment carries through to the inside as well.
The buildings of Alhambra showcase
exquisitely-detailed artwork
that is grounded in symmetry and mathematics,
yet seems uncannily organic.
A poem on the walls describes:
"A palace of grandest beauty and perfection...
...with embroideries similar to the flowers of the garden."
The designs were not intended to be ultra-realistic,
but the Moors intentionally pulled from the patterns,
the shapes, the color pallets,
and even the textures of the natural world.
The flora and fauna helped breathe life into the castle,
connecting nature and man-made, inside and out.
(Bird sings)
NARRATOR: In the gardens,
the tadpoles have transformed into tiny toads,
and are preparing to leave the ponds in search of food.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: But the pond walls are as steep and forbidding
as those of the red cliffs on which the castle sits.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: Persistence eventually pays off.
The toads will spend the rest of their lives on land.
Many stay in the gardens.
Others escape the castle
through tiny gaps in the walls.
(Insects chirp)
(Sound of running water)
NARRATOR: A dragonfly nymph is undergoing
an even greater transformation than the toads.
Attached to a reed above the water,
it starts breathing air and pumping its body up.
The nymph's exoskeleton has provided sturdy armor,
but is now a straightjacket that must be shed.
Slowly, the adult dragonfly emerges, soft and fragile.
Its wings begin to unfurl as it pumps fluid into tiny vessels.
The abdomen elongates.
If any of these steps are interrupted mid-molt,
the dragonfly will die.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: Finally, after about 3 hours, it's done.
The dragonfly leaves the tiny husk
of its former self behind and spreads its wings.
The adult will only live for a few weeks,
enough time to breed,
and then the cycle will begin again
in the life-giving waters of Alhambra.
The ponds and fountains are integral
to the aesthetic wonders of the palace.
It's no accident that the reflections in the water
add beauty and calm.
But bringing water to the castle was no easy feat.
The plateau of Sabika rises
more than 150 feet above the city.
The city lies within one of the most arid regions in Spain.
But the Moors had learned from the Romans.
They built a series of raised aqueducts
that fed into the castle.
The aqueducts channel water more than
4 miles from the Rio Darro,
which is itself fed by snowmelt
from the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The majestic Sierra Nevada,
where barren hillsides
become forests
that give way to snow-capped peaks.
Above the peaks, a Eurasian griffon soars,
riding thermals as it scans for food.
Iberian ibex dot the hillside below.
But the vulture is a scavenger, not a hunter.
It uses its acute eyesight
to spot any creature that's fallen ill or died.
Ibex were hunted almost to extinction
in Spain and Portugal in the 19th century.
But here in the Sierra Nevada, the species has persevered.
(Birds squawk)
NARRATOR: The ibex are skittish. When anxious, they follow
a mature member of the herd, who knows which slopes
provide the best protection.
The griffons keep one eye to the ground,
but they're also watching each other.
When one spots the remains of a dead ibex,
they all swoop in to vie for the meal.
They can pick a carcass clean
with their sharp beaks and powerful talons.
(Griffons squawk)
NARRATOR: Birds will fight for the juiciest morsels
and defend their prime positions on the corpse.
It's tiring work,
and after a hearty tussle and a good meal,
the griffons hit the showers
to wash the blood and dust from their wings.
The Spanish sun dries them in a heartbeat.
Then, with bellies full, it's time for a siesta.
That's just what the other scavengers
have been waiting for.
The foxes are too timid - and clever -
to challenge the griffons head-on.
But they're quick to scamper over
for some fast food when no one is looking.
(Crows caw)
NARRATOR: Crows, too, sneak in for a bite.
But as with all things in nature,
there's a hierarchy to scavenging,
and the final arrivals scare the smaller petty thieves away.
Bearded vultures eat almost nothing but bone marrow.
Like the griffons, they're aggressive.
They'll fight vigorously over the best cuts.
The dark-headed juveniles
aren't intimidated by the larger adults.
But when a young gun grabs a nice bone,
he weighs the competition and decides he's better off
taking this meal to go.
The bearded vultures' beaks are strong enough to crack bones,
and they've learned a trick for cracking the toughest.
They drop them from great height and shatter them
on the rocks to get to the marrow inside.
Between them, the scavengers of the Sierra Nevada
make sure nothing goes to waste.
(Birds squawk)
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: Higher up in the mountains,
even the vultures can't find food.
At over 2 miles above sea level,
the only thing here is snow and ice.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: But this is not just any ice.
These sparkling crystals
become the water that brings Alhambra to life.
The lush gardens and rich wildlife
would not be possible without the mountains nearby.
The aqueducts carry it here,
but that's only part of the challenge.
Within the walls of the castle,
the Moors used their engineering prowess to create
the complex system of waterways that fed the ponds and gardens.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: It was a perpetual flow, and to this day
the castle and the peaks of the Sierra Nevada
are connected by the water they share.
On the far side of the mountains,
little rain falls.
This is Europe's only desert...
...Tabernas.
The parched earth and desiccated plants
leave no question about the harsh reality
of life without water.
One creature that does manage to survive here
is the darkling beetle, a hard-shelled omnivore
that feeds on fresh and decaying plants,
dead insects, and fungi.
It can live for up to 10 years without ever taking a drink,
extracting all the moisture it needs from its food.
When threatened, the darkling raises its rear
and emits a foul-smelling compound
to discourage would-be predators...
...predators like the praying mantis.
The mantis is a well-camouflaged killer.
She moves slowly, and only to find a better vantage point
from which to wait for prey.
But when a potential meal wanders within reach,
she's lightning fast.
As she digs in, a male mantis watches closely.
He's looking for a mate,
but has to time his advance carefully.
If he approaches before she's eaten her fill,
he'll become lunch too.
He's a fraction of her size.
Cautiously, he climbs aboard and gets down to business.
While the action takes place down below,
he keeps his eyes locked on her face...
...for good reason,
female mantises are notoriously hostile,
even to their mates.
Her partner makes an excellent post-coital snack.
After some initial nibbling,
she bites him clean in half,
the ultimate sacrifice for his future offspring in the desert.
Coming from the deserts of Africa,
the Moors were unfazed by the harsh landscape
and arid climate of Andalucía.
They adapted well to their Spanish surroundings,
but found plenty of room for improvement.
Building on thousands of years of Muslim learning,
they used their vast understanding of science
to revolutionize the region.
After the Dark Ages, it was the Muslims
who resurrected the knowledge of the Greeks,
and then expanded on it.
They brought the art of paper making to Europe.
They studied the laws of physics...
...created new fields of mathematics.
They pioneered advances in medicine.
The Muslims expanded the science of optics...
...and mastered cartography...
...using instruments like the compass and the astrolabe...
...which measured the angle from the North Star
to the horizon...
...to chart amazingly accurate ocean maps.
The Moors put their scientific knowledge
to particularly good use here in Southern Spain.
They used trigonometry and algebra,
both Arab inventions, to revolutionize land surveying.
They built complex irrigation channels,
adopting existing technologies
and inventing new ones to collect, store and lift water.
They used fertilizers and pest control,
and grafting to create new varieties of fruit trees.
According to at least one scholar,
the Moors' agricultural system was "the most complex,
the most scientific, the most perfect,
ever devised by the ingenuity of man."
As they transformed the landscape around Alhambra,
the Moors also created new habitats for the local wildlife.
The spur-thighed tortoise, also known as the Moor tortoise,
was one of the beneficiaries.
It can survive in areas of sparse vegetation,
where it browses on grass and other plants,
but it happily adapted to the more succulent offerings
cultivated by the Moors.
(Bird calls)
NARRATOR: Hoopoes, too, found Moor agriculture to their liking.
These striking crested birds
gravitate to open fields where they can dig for insects.
The Moors ploughed plenty of those.
In other parts of the world, the Hoopoes migrate,
but here, they stay put all year round,
building nests into walls surrounding the fields.
Both parents are responsible for feeding the young.
They're warmly greeted by the hungry chicks.
But if an intruder approaches,
it'll be hit by a carefully aimed stream of feces.
(Birds make hooping noise)
NARRATOR: The hoopoes are monogamous for each breeding season
and, thanks to the Moors, the region is so fertile
they may even produce multiple broods in a year.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: The birds, with their distinctive crests and graceful,
swooping flight patterns,
were highly regarded by the Moors.
They're even mentioned in the Quran
as saviors of Moses and confidants of King Solomon.
To this day, they thrive in the fields around Alhambra.
The hoopoes flourished under the Moors,
but from the moment the Muslim invaders
seized control of Spain, the Christians fought back.
Battles raged on and off for hundreds of years,
a period known as the "Reconquista."
By the 15th century, the conflict was in full force.
The Spanish pushed down from the north.
By 1469, Granada,
watched over by the fortified Alhambra castle,
was the last remaining Muslim stronghold in all of Europe.
The castle was well-defended...
...but the Moors were effectively captives
within their own city.
The sun was setting on the Muslim empire in Europe.
The Moors weren't the only African invaders under threat.
(Owl hoots)
NARRATOR: The North African hedgehog arrived millennia before them.
It too favors the gardens of Alhambra
over the surrounding desert.
Smaller than the European hedgehog,
it's a generalist, foraging at night
and feeding on any small animals it can find,
as well as on seeds, nuts, and fungus.
But it's also quite tender under its quills,
and would make a tasty meal for a lucky genet.
Genets have a keen sense of smell.
This one is following its nose,
trying to find the small hedgehog in the rocks.
But the hedgehog has a trick.
The tight ball offers only sharp quills
to the would-be assailant.
There's nothing appealing about a mouthful of quills,
so the genet heads off to look for less prickly prey.
With the threat gone, the hedgehog gets back to work.
She's hunting herself,
in need of a quick meal so she can return to her nest.
She's a new mother,
with a hungry baby waiting to suckle.
She's not as timid as she looks,
quite capable of taking down a plump scorpion.
The scorpion tracks her with its eight beady eyes...
...its vicious stinger poised.
But she has some built-in immunity to its venom
and she's clever, going straight for the weapon.
The arachnid has no chance once she grabs it by the tail.
Sated, she hustles back to her nest,
just near the castle walls.
Her baby - called a hoglet - is just a few days old.
It was born blind and helpless.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: Its spines are soft and hair-like at first.
They only start to harden after a week or two.
(♪♪♪)
NARRATOR: The hoglet will nurse for about six weeks
before going off on its own.
At about ten weeks,
it'll undergo a process called quilling,
losing its baby quills and growing adult ones like its mom.
While the African hedgehog still thrives in Andalucía,
the Moors' time was almost up.
By the late 1400s,
the only things keeping them from complete annihilation
at the hands of the Christians were the castle fortifications.
The red fortress was the final holdout
for the Muslims in Europe.
While the Christians had been forming alliances
and consolidating their power, the Moors in Granada
had become ever-more isolated.
There was no help coming from other Muslim kingdoms.
On the hillside beneath the castle,
other loners fight for survival.
The Mediterranean banded centipede
is one of the smaller species of centipede,
and its venom is not the most toxic.
But it's an opportunistic carnivore,
and will aggressively attack any animal it can eat
or feels threatened by.
That includes members of its own species.
The two engage in an epic battle.
Each trying to gain access
to the soft underbelly of the other.
The fight is not about food.
It's about direct competition, kill or be killed.
The centipedes wield their pincer-like forcipules
like hypodermic needles,
each trying to stab the other with deadly poison.
Finally, a direct hit.
The venom acts quickly.
The victor won't eat his rival, it's too big.
But there is now one less competitor on the forest floor.
Nearby, a Spanish funnel web spider lies in wait.
The centipede initially rushes right past...
...then comes scurrying back to investigate
whether the arachnid would make a nice meal.
The spider, one of the largest and fiercest-looking in Europe,
has other ideas.
She misses, but the attack sends him scurrying.
The spider doesn't follow.
The centipede is less of a meal than a potential home wrecker.
The quicker he's gone, the better.
Her webbed nest is an intricate one,
with a deep interior and fine filigree
that act as climate control.
The humidity deep in the web
can be 20 to 25% higher than outside,
and the temperature cooler.
Though she chased off the centipede,
she sits quietly as a grasshopper approaches.
This interloper is definitely welcome.
She liquefies his insides with venom,
and lets him marinate.
By 1492, Alhambra was a tiny Muslim island
in a vast sea of Christianity.
The palace was under siege
and the walls could only keep the Moors safe for so long.
The Moorish leader, Muhammad the 12th,
realized that no reinforcements
were coming from across the Mediterranean.
With no alternatives, he negotiated a surrender.
He turned the keys of the castle
over to Queen Isabella of Castile.
The decision prevented the destruction
of the Muslim masterpiece,
but it also opened the door for a new era
of Christian-inspired construction.
Over the centuries that followed,
whole sections were torn down,
replaced by Renaissance-style palaces.
Below the castle in Granada proper,
the Catholics built a huge cathedral
on the site of the old mosque,
completing the transformation from powerful Muslim emirate
back to Christian stronghold.
Incredibly, it was only a few months after the surrender
that a largely unknown explorer from Italy arrived in Granada
to ask Queen Isabella for support.
Here at Alhambra, he proposed a cockamamie plan
to sail west in the hopes of finding
a new passage to India
in the name of the Spanish crown.
Isabella gave him her blessing and her money.
Christopher Columbus crossed an ocean
and explored the New World,
thanks in large part to the nautical tools,
maps, and navigation skills perfected by the Arabs.
The Moors had gone,
but their legacy helped pave the way to the New World,
and in Spain has endured to this day.
For 800 years, they ruled Andalucía,
leaving behind an unrivaled architectural gem.
Despite changing empires and religions,
Alhambra has stood proudly on its hilltop as a testament
to the Moors' technical ingenuity and creative flare.
They devoted themselves to building
a Garden of Eden here on Earth,
and in so doing created a lasting natural sanctuary
within a man-made masterpiece.
(♪♪♪)