A day trip to Cordoba

  Cordoba, Spain
Monday, June 25, 2007

The day didn´t start off auspiciously - despite being told to be at the meeting point at 8am to get on the bus, we were still waiting at the meeting point for the bus at 8.30am...which, on a Sunday morning, isn´t the greatest way to spend half an hour that early in the morning.  Anyway, just before 9am the minibus arrived and about 12 of us boarded.  For some reason, which I´m not sure about, we then had to change minibuses at a random petrol station en route from Granada to Cordoba. 

It was slightly confusing when we drove straight through a city that looked like Cordoba and past the signs indicating the route to the Mezquita (mosque) which is the main attraction in Cordoba.  Turned out that the guide and the driver knew what they were doing - our first stop was not to be the Mezquita, but was Madinat al-Zahra which was slightly outside town. 

Madinat al-Zahra is the remains of the capital of al-Andalus in the 10th century.  There is a lot of the city still to be uncovered, but it´s still quite an impressive sight.  As a result of political struggles in the area between various small Muslim kingdoms, the city was targeted for its building materials etc and was only in active use for about 40 years after being built.  Although it was still relatively early in the day, the Cordoba heat had already shown itself as we were walking around the sight.  Didn´t bode well for the rest of the day.

Cordoba ruins

Cordoba arches

We got back on the minibus and headed back to the main city of Cordoba where we were taken on a walking tour of the Jewish part of town.  Over time, Cordoba has been home to significant numbers of Jewish, Muslim and Christian/Catholic people.  It was also a significant city in Roman times and has a Roman bridge over its river.  Unfortunately, the bridge and its tower are in the process of being preserved and so were under a whole lot of scaffolding, so photo-taking wasn´t really an option.  

Cordoba Roman bridge

After a quick lunch consisting of "un bocadillo" i.e. a baguette, and some ice cream (purely to provide relief from the heat!!), we headed for the mezquita.  The timing of our arrival at 3pm meant that we had missed the fun of standing in the queue that had existed at 2pm when the mezquita opened for the day. 

The building itself is really unusual.  Originally, it was a Visigothic church from the 6th century.  However, at the time of the Islamic invasion of Cordoba in 785 (no, I don´t remember this exactly, am using guide to help with dates!!!), the original church was demolished and the mosque was built on the same site.  It was expanded a number of times by different Muslim rulers.  Once the Christians returned in the 1200s, time started running out for the mosque.  But it still had a good 300 years before the Christians decided to start building a cathedral.  So today, the building is effectively a cathedral that sits inside a mosque, but which has been completely consecrated for Christian purposes.  It´s very weird because there are features from both Muslim and Christian architecture in it.  The other good thing about the Mezquita is that is provided welcome relief from the heat outside as it was pleasantly cool and shaded. 

However that respite ended at about 4pm when we were again led on more of a walking tour of the city.  By this time, all 12-15 of us on the bus were decidedly worse for wear from walking so much in the heat.  Not to mention the fact that the guide gave all of his explanations etc in Spanish.  Did wonders for my Spanish as I understood most of what he was saying, but it was fairly tiring for my brain. 

By 6pm we were all tired and got back on the bus for the return trip to Granada.  Had been quite a good day and am definitely glad that I made the effort to go.  Pictures to follow...