Okay, I lied. Cordoba is actually a very old and beautiful city in southern Spain. Like many others, it began as a neolithic settlement, then came the Romans, then the Muslims. In fact, it became the capital of the Islamic emirate and the Caliphate of Cordoba i.e, a very important city! Lastly, came the Christians.
If you are a game of thrones fan, you may recognize the bridge shown below. I recognized it, but didn’t remember that it was used as the Long Bridge of Volantis in season four or five.
At one time there was a library in Cordoba that held over 4,000,000 books! All destroyed through the ages. One can only imagine the knowledge that was lost. It was rumored that the catalog of books in the library was 44 volumes in length! The library was created and maintained by the Muslims, of course. It was built by the same Caliph that built the mosque mentioned below.
FYI: The Spanish place the accent on the first syllable, not like we do. So this is Cor’ do-ba, not Cor do’ ba.
We’ve been to a number of Islamic countries by now and have seen a lot of mosques, but the Great Mosque of Cordoba is a sight to behold! Not just because it is beautiful, but also because it is kind of strange. The site was originally a Roman temple, then became a Visigoth temple and later church, when the Visigoths all converted to Christianity, then it became a mosque, and lastly it became what it is today, a church. Well, kind of. You see, they built a Christian Cathedral right inside the mosque! They had to remove 120 pillars to build the cathedral.
Seen through the glass in the floor (above) is a peek at the lower Visigoth church. It’s amazing to realize how important this same place has been to different religions. To the victors…
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