Walking through the Albaicín feels like stepping back in time, though not in the sanitized way you might expect from a UNESCO World Heritage site. This hillside neighborhood sprawls across Granada's northern slopes, where narrow cobblestone streets wind between whitewashed houses and suddenly open onto breathtaking viewpoints of the Alhambra.

The maze-like layout isn't accidental. These medieval streets date back to the Nasrid period between the 13th and 15th centuries, when Muslim refugees from newly conquered Christian territories crowded into Granada. The Arabic name al-Bayyāzīn possibly refers to falconers who once lived here, though some historians argue it comes from refugees from the city of Baeza.

What strikes me most about the Albaicín is how it wears its layers of history. You'll find 11th-century Zirid walls still standing, remnants of when this hill housed the main citadel before the royal court moved to the Alhambra. The Puerta de Elvira and Puerta Monaita are authentic medieval gates, not reconstructions. Walk past them and you're following the same paths that merchants took centuries ago along what's now Calle Panaderos, the old commercial heart.

The neighborhood's famous carmenes – traditional houses with small gardens – tell a more complex story than most guidebooks mention. After the Morisco rebellion of 1568, when the remaining Muslim population was expelled, Christian residents took over the abandoned properties and converted many into the garden houses you see today. The term comes from the Arabic word for vineyard, reflecting their original purpose on the city's outskirts.

Churches built over former mosques dot the area, like San José, which incorporates an original minaret. The Bañuelo, one of the few surviving Islamic bathhouses in Spain, sits quietly on Carrera del Darro. These aren't museum pieces – they're part of a living neighborhood where residents hang laundry from balconies and chat in doorways.

The tourist crowds thin out quickly once you venture beyond the main viewpoints. Side streets reveal remnants of the elaborate water system that supplied the medieval city, including underground cisterns still visible today. An Albaicín audio guide can help decode the architectural details and historical layers, but honestly, getting lost among these streets teaches you just as much about how Granada evolved from a small Jewish settlement called Gharnāṭa into one of medieval al-Andalus's great cities.