World Heritage Site Cordoba Spain

by Joan Carroll

Title

World Heritage Site Cordoba Spain

Artist

Joan Carroll

Medium

Photograph - Photography And Digital Art

Description

One of the world’s newest UNESCO World Heritage sites is Madinat al-Zahra, having been awarded that distinction on 1st July 2018. I know I should be thrilled as I love visiting and learning about the variety of places on our globe that have unique cultural meaning for all of humankind. But I first had to shed the experience of getting there before it could all be appreciated. Madinat is located 4 miles outside of Cordoba Spain but not on any public transport route and not along any streets that would make for pleasant walking. So if you are without your own car, you are left to….gasp….a tour bus! In my case, a big yellow tour bus with ‘Medina al-Zahra’ written in huge red script along the side of the bus (at least you knew which tour bus to take on the return trip). Once at Medina, you find there are many other tour buses (groan), even in January. You then need to buy a ticket for the shuttle bus that takes you from the information center to the actual site. It runs only every 30 minutes! If you are unlucky enough to arrive with other tour buses and can’t fit in the shuttle…well, too bad. Wait it out. I made it onto the shuttle but saw about 20 people left to wait. If you know tour buses, you know they are on a schedule…which means those people had less time to tour the site. OK, so up till now, the needle on the fun-meter is barely budging. Luckily my ‘tour’ consisted only of transportation so once there, I was free to wander about. After a few deep breaths, I could start to enjoy it! Medina Azahara or Madinat az-Zahra means “the shining city". It is the ruins of a vast, fortified Moorish medieval palace-city built by Abd-ar-Rahman III (912–961), the first Umayyad Caliph of Córdoba. It was a medieval Moorish town and the de facto capital of al-Andalus, or Muslim Spain, as the heart of the administration and government was within its walls. Built beginning in 936-940, the city included ceremonial reception halls, mosques, administrative and government offices, gardens, a mint, workshops, barracks, residences and baths. Water was supplied through aqueducts. However, the city only flourished for about 80 years. It was sacked in a civil war in 1010 and lay abandoned until excavations began in the 1910s.To date, only about 10% of the complex has been excavated and restored, but this includes the central area with "two caliphal residences, with associated bath complexes, two aristocratic residences, and service quarters ... spaces associated with the palace guard; some large administrative buildings ... the extraordinary court complex presided over by the reception hall ... the great garden spaces, and just outside this area, the congregational mosque". If you have a hard time imagining what all the structures are, the excellent partly animated film at the information center gives a good idea of the life and times outside of Cordoba over a millennium ago.

FEATURED PHOTO, No Place Like Home group, 3/8/19

FEATURED PHOTO, Arts Fantastic World group 3/6/19

FEATURED PHOTO, New FAA Uploads group, 3/5/19

FEATURED PHOTO, Nature Landmarks Landscapes Wildlife group, 2/14/19

Joan carroll, bright city, bright, archeology, archeological, caliphate, stone, touristic, history, column, cultural, mediterranean, culture, monument, islam, tourism, islamic, europe, architecture, arabic, excavation

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February 2nd, 2019

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Viewed 1,549 Times  -  Last Visitor from Gainesville, FL on 04/16/2024 at 1:22 PM

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