Following the typical Arabic fortresses construction style, the malaguenian fortress of Bobastro was built on the hillside of the Gibralfaro mountain (Yabal-Faruk, meaning mountain of the lighthouse) from where it is possible to watch the African coast.

 It is undoubtedly, the most important military fortification remaining from the Hispanic-Arabic period.

The Arabic historian Maqqari, assured that Badis el Ziri, king of Grenada, ordered its construction between the years 1057 and 1063, being the inside palaces remade by the following Nazaries kings copying the style of the Grenada Alhambra.

It had two walled enclaves with numerous turrets and several gates, which prevent the entry and added monumentality to the fortress. The most important of all the doorways is the Door of the Columns, . so called because its jamb was constructed with two roman grooved pillars, one from the Arch of Christ and the other from the Arch of Grenada, and which is the entrance to the parade ground

The Catholic Sovereigns lodged in the Alcazaba after the conquest of Malaga and the King Philip IV was also a guest of it.

In 1931 it was stated national monument.

At the foothill of the Alcazaba are the remains of the Roman Theatre, it is supposed to be a construction of the Augustus epoch remodelled during the Flavios mandate. Part of its stones where used by the Arabs for the construction of the Alcazaba.