Cordoba

We’ve spent the past two days in Cordoba and its beautiful. It’s more like Morocco than Spain because it reached its height under Islamic rule. We visited La Mezquita yesterday, a mosque built in the 700s and the second biggest in the world and the only that isn’t facing Mecca. The inside is made of hundreds of arches meant to look like a giant forest of palm trees, an oasis in the desert. Of course when the Christians conquered the city, the placed a massive cathedral inside La Mezquita but now its falling down.

I think I enjoy night here much more than the day. During the day it’s so hot that there are giant awnings stretched between building tops to shade the street. At night it cools off and all of the towers, palm trees, and fountains are beautifully lit. Today we traveled outside the city to an archeological dig of Medina Azahara. This was the city of the caliph constructed on a mountain several miles outside of Cordoba. The gardens have been reconstructed and we were told that in the height of the city, it took several pounds of bread to feed the goldfish in the gardens everyday.