The Spanish Orientalist tradition differs from that of the rest of the European colonial powers and has focused more on a domestic “Orient.” Spanish perceptions of sartorial symbols of Muslim identity has been shaped by an internal Islamic history, and one in which Muslims represented a threat to internal power structures rather than in an external setting. With the emergence of the Alhambra as part of the Spanish tourism industry, the complex became a national symbol of Spain’s Islamic past. The invention of the camera facilitated Alhambra as a new object of attention, resulting in the large production of photographs of the Alhambra starting in the mid-19th century. My paper focuses on a body of private, professional and commercial photographs from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century featuring human subjects in the physical space of Alhambra itself or in photography studios displaying the mosque as background. While photographs of the Alhambra itself have been studied, no work has been done to study the ways in which visitors interacted with the real or imagined space of the Alhambra in photography or otherwise. The prevalence of Orientalist costume in these photographs reveals a new touristic rite in Spain. The practice will be read in the light of Spaniards dressing up as “Moors” in village festivals, and studio photography as a form of photography that is able to favor the power of the subject rather than the photographer, potentially resulting in a powerful medium of self-representation. I argue that Spaniards dressing up as “Moors” in this specific context is distinct from the European colonial tradition of cultural cross-dressing, which was infused with colonial power inequalities; dressing up as a “moro” invoked an internal Islamic past as opposed to referencing a living colonial Other. I also argue that the artificiality of the setting and costumes, the captions and the wearers’ body language in these photographs confirms, through the performance of an Other, the very Christian identity of the wearer. This act of cultural cross-dressing displayed a victory over a past Islamic threat by a Christian identity that persevered, reinforcing the contemporary Christian identity of Spain as a nation.