Cordoba

This past weekend our program took a trip to Cordoba, another Andulacian city. In this city there is one main attraction, a mosque that was built by the Muslims. Construction began on it in the year 789. The mosque is built in 4 parts. Parts 1 and 2 have columns that are all different because the muslims took them from Roman buildings. According to the heights of the colunms, the topper on each column is also different. Also intact are the lead plates that are on top of every column to absorb seismic waves, earthquakes were quite common at this time in Spain. Once you move onto parts 3 and 4 of the mosque, all of the columns begin to look alike because the muslims started constructing them at this time period. Each one is made of marble right from Cordoba. If you look closely at the columns you can identify the signature of the builder of that column. Each column has it's own signature. It was very surreal to see that someone, so long ago, has carved their name in a column that I am looking at and touching today! At one point there were 1013 columns in the mosque, now however there are only about 900. The reason for this is because after San Fernando reconquered Spain and declared it a Christian country, they built a large Cathedral in the middle of the mosque. It was neat to be sitting in the cathedral and look to my right or left and see all the repeating arches of the mosque. This was a truely breathtaking sight. Cordoba is a beautiful city that is well-known for its gardens and flowers. As you can see in the photos, the gardens are breathtaking and I hear are even more beautiful in the Spring when flowers have bloomed. Enjoy the photos!