Four currency cards are drawn and placed face up to form the currency market, and four building tiles are drawn and placed face up on the four spaces of the building market.

The player with the fewest currency cards in their hand takes the first turn; if tied, the tied player with the lower total value of currency cards in their hand takes the first turn.

The player with the most of a given building card type scores points indicated on the scoring card, according to the building type; in case of a tie, points are divided equally among tying players.

The extensions are designed by both Dirk Henn and Wolfgang Panning and are named for one of its modules.

During the scoring rounds, they award "negative" points to the player with the fewest of these tiles in his/her Alhambra.

The success of Alhambra has also led Henn to release or re-release some other games under the Alhambra name and Moorish theme: A video game version was being developed by Vivendi Games for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, but was cancelled due to "unforeseen difficulties".

[1] Upon its release, Alhambra won the Spiel des Jahres[2] the Schweizer Spielepreis for Family Games,[citation needed] the As d'Or, and the Essen Feather for the year of its release,[3] It also placed second in the Deutscher Spiele Preis.