An innovative cataloging method using up-to-the minute IT has made it possible for scientists to compile and present over 3,000 arabic inscriptions, and their Spanish translations, found around the walls of the Comares Palace at Granada's famous Alhambra.

The 'Epigraphic Corpus of the Alhambra' presented to the media today, will hopefully have all of the approximately 10,000 arabic inscriptions at the Alhambra catalogued by the end of next year.

The compilation and translation of the Comares Palace inscriptions accounts for only about 35% of all the inscriptions believed to be at the Alhambra.

According to investigators working on the project, the translation of the epigraphs has captured the people's interest for centuries now, ever since the Moors were expelled from Granada by the Spanish catholic monarchs, Fernando and Isabella, in 1492.

This latest project presents the inscriptions in DVD format, allowing people to take a virtual tour of the Comares Palace at the click of a mouse, not only to find out what an inscription means, but also to see exactly where it can be found.

Contrary to popular belief, arabic poetry and extracts from the Qur'an only represent a very small percentage of the total inscriptions at the palace.