Crusing Around Cordoba

So we arrived in Cordoba at 9pm on Feb 12th.  We wandered a bit to get some food, but mostly just hung out in the hostel.  The next morning we got up early to head off to the ruins outside of the city.  It was a very messed up trip.  We walked to a bus stop to wait for transportation to the ruins.  After an hour no bus had stopped there and our instructor got directions from another bus driver as to where we were supposed to be.  We then walked another 20 minutes to get to ANOTHER bus stop and after 30 minutes of waiting there she found out that the bus does not come on Sundays.  We then took 5 taxis to get there.  Spain 1 - Regina 0.

The ruins were of an old Arab city/palace/fortress.  It was called Madinat al Zahra.

Now I'm not really into ruins like this where very little is left except the floor plan, but it was nice to just wander through it all.

Apparently most of this was houses, servants quarters, and courtyards.  There were pools basins that ran through some of the grander rooms, but none ever had water in them.  The Califah also bragged that the place was not lit by candles.....so what went in the pools and what lit the place you say?  Well that would be mercury.  There were pools of mercury in many of the rooms that provided the illumination (mostly reflective).  I am not sure how on EARTH there are not more reports of insanity from the people living there, but there aren't.  My professor is looking into it though because there have to be SERIOUSLY health repercussions for living in covered rooms with giant pools of mercury.

My friend Teresa took a creeper picture of me relaxing and looking out over the countryside and I liked it so I'm posting it :-)

After the ruins we headed back into the city to grab lunch.  It took us another hour to get a bus into the city.  By this time we've used up all our free time waiting for buses so we were only going to have time to go to the mosque.  Our instructor really should get things straight about transportation from here on out...  Spain 2 - Regina 0

The mosque is on a bit of land with a long history.  Originally it was a pagan center during Roman times.  Then it became a Visigoth church.  Then the Muslims knocked it down to build the mosque.  THEN during the reconquest the Christians took it back and converted it into a Cathedral.  They didn't knock it down and replace it because the people of Cordoba refused to allow something that exquisite to be torn down.  It really is a wonder.  In the original structure all of the arches along the sides were open to the streets.  This allowed the people to come from the light into the darker area at the center representing their mysterious journey to Allah.

When the Christians reconquered the building, they filled in all of the open arches and turned them into Chapel areas because apparently nature and prayer don't mix.

 The center of the mosque was given windows, made much brighter, and turned into the Cathedral area.  A complete opposite of the dark center approach to the old mosque.

It is said that the mosque has 1000 arches and they refer to the building as "el bosque de columnas" or "the forest of columns".  The building was built in stages.  At first the arches were built with alternating stone and brick areas (hence the white and red), but later they were just solid stone painted to look like bricks.  This was the cheaper alternative.  If you look really hard you can tell the difference between the brick and the paint.  Try and figure it out in the next pictures.

It is just a very beautiful solemn building and the arches are beautiful.  Honestly the church part kind of ruined the fluidity of it all.

After the mosque we gathered our things from the hostel, jumped in taxis, and headed to the train station.  The train ride back was very fast since we took the AVE (high speed trains) and we were back in our beds by 10:30 that night.  It was a wonderful weekend!