Alhambra, city, Los Angeles county, California, U.S. Alhambra lies in the San Gabriel Valley, south of Pasadena. Laid out in 1874 by Benjamin D. Wilson on land once part of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, it developed as an agricultural community with a unique irrigation system using the first piped water in southern California. Named for one of Wilson’s favourite books—Washington Irving’s The Alhambra (1832), which popularized the Moorish palace of the same name in Granada, Spain (see Alhambra)—the city grew as a residential base for nearby Los Angeles industries. The city is the site of one of eight campuses of Alliant International University (formed in 2001 from the merger of the California School of Professional Psychology [1969; after 2000 called Alliant University] and the United States International University [1952]). Inc. 1903. Pop. (2000) 85,804; (2010) 83,089.