Cordoba is an historical town of more than twenty centuries. The River Guadalquivir runs through Cordoba and then flows to Seville in Andalusia before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. You may remember that Christopher Colombus started his great exploration finding the new world from Seville five centuries ago.
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| (Romanesque bridge over River Guadalquivir leading to the Great Mosque/Cordoba Cathedral) |
From the above photo, you can see historical architectures of three different periods and cultures. The bridge is called Ruente Romano that was built from the Roman time. Muslims under the Umayyad Emirate took over Iberia in the seventh century. Cordoba was the capital of the Umayyad government. The medieval town was one of the great Mediterranean cities and had a population of one hundred thousand. Cordoba was not only a political center of Al-Andalus, it was also a major religious and learning center. Its commercial network covered Mediterranean and the Islamic world.
The Great Mosque of Cordoba was built on the site of an ancient Roman temple. It is still the biggest mosque in Europe with over 850 columns supporting the giant arches. After Cordoba was retook by Christians in the thirteenth century, the Cordoba Cathedral was built within the mosque.
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| (White and red arch in the mosque external wall covered with Christian shield) |
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| (Beautiful wooden window cover with Roman style columns) |
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| (The bell tower of Cordoba Cathedral - converted from the mosque minerat) |
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| (A Roman church opposite of the mosque - now a tourists information center) |
During our stay in Cordoba, we spent a night at the Hotel Macia Alfaro. The hotel is converted from houses within the old Cordoba town. You can still see beautiful remains of the Mudejar craftsmanship in the hotel. If you are there next time, you may try.
When we got up in the morning, we saw beautiful sunrise from the window of our hotel room.
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| (Sunrise in Cordoba) |
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