11. Cordobo - The Center of Europe when London and Paris were only villages

Today we spent most of our time going from Toledo back to Madrid and then on to Cordoba.   It was pretty much a traveling day.   

We are staying in an old "inn" in Cordoba.   If we look out our window, we are looking at the largest Mosque in Spain and about the third in the world.    It was such a beautiful place, that the christians kept the walls and built a huge Cathedral right in the middle.  That is what we are off to see today.    

If you saw the posts on Facebook yesterday, that was a quick visit to the Alkazar.   The grounds were just lovely.   We enjoyed seeing the extensive irrigation system that has been used for hundreds of years.   A series of tile and rock channels hidden in all the shubbery and rock and then flooded as the plants need water.  The whole city is covered in these stones.   There are designs in almost all of it, milllions and millions of stones that some slave, child or worker had to pull from the river and sort.

As we were walking around the streets last night, it  was interesting to see that many of the buildings had just used the old colomns that are centuries old.

Many of the statues are from the crusades and there is a tremendous amount of repair to their artifacts.    The bridge which was pivital in history is still standing, but they have lit it for beauty and covered the top in granite tile so it is smooth.   ( Rick Steves wasn't so sure about how they are reclaiming their antiquities)

FYI  

Moors - Muslims that moved to Spain in 700 AD  - they have been here a long, long time and don't define themselves as the Muslims in today's news.

The Jewish people of Spain have been here since 70 AD.   They and the Moors were able to live well together until about the time Queen Isabella commissioned Columbus.    All things fell apart after that.

Iberians are the indiginous people of Spain 

And from now on we are in the region of Andalusia

As we were walking around the streets last night, it  was interesting to see that many of the buildings had just used the old colomns that are centuries old.

Cordoba is known as the Patio City.... We have seen many of these.

Cordoba was founded by the Romans and due to its strategic importance as the highest navigable point of the Guadalquivir River, it became a port city of great importance, used for shipping Spanish olive oil, wine and wheat back to Ancient Rome. The Romans built the mighty bridge crossing the river, now called "El Puente Romano". 

This ancient city was a bustling Port and Center of Europe while London, Paris and Rome were still small villages.

When the city was reconquered by the Christians in 1236, the new rulers of the city were so awed by its beauty that they left it standing, building their cathedral in the midst of its rows of arches and columns, and creating the extraordinary church-mosque we see today

Cordoba video (4.3 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR4ZYH_wn9w