It has been renovated, making it a Nasrid building made of rocks. With its rectangular courtyards, passages, gardens, and ponds, it combines defense with the magnificence of an Arab-style palace. Its chambers follow the heritage of Nasrid architecture by alternating between light and shade to achieve the light-shadow play of the master architects.

It is among the most significant Andalusian military achievements of Spain. Despite its machicolations, watchtowers with arrow slits, and crenellated walls, its balconies overlooking the city and harbor served as its strongest line of defense.

Its nearby neighborhood, which is now gone, was very civilized at the time and had its own sewage system and latrines in nearly every home.

It has undergone numerous reconstructions, particularly in the 20th century, and now features illustrious archaeological displays. Roman concrete walls covered in reddish stucco, slate ponds used to manufacture garum (Roman fish paste), and a dungeon where Christian prisoners who worked during the day were imprisoned at night were all discovered during the first excavations for its restoration.

The Alcazaba's peaceful interior rooms and gardens, as well as its defenses carved out of rock, stand out. It was constructed as an urban fortress to act as the city's political, administrative, and residential headquarters. Interior space measures 15,000 square meters and is made up of 3,478 civilian structures, 3,516 military structures, and unbuilt space.

Its original structure was the so-called Haza de la Alcazaba or Haza Baja, the lower enclosed and southern enclosure of the Alcazaba, which the Castilians would regrettably refer to as "the corral of the captives" and which Rodrguez de Berlanga, who witnessed its destruction, described in his work "Malaca" as a structure of cyclopean walls and towers, undoubtedly more significant than those currently preserved because they served as the first line The ancient mosque-chapel built in the Alcazaba's old Calle del Zagal in honor of the Archangel Gabriel and commissioned by King Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1497 is no longer there.