Cordoba!

A few weekends ago, we had our WIP Fall Excursion so all 24 of us piled into a coach and headed south to Cordoba. We had a guided tour of the city and I thought it was really interesting. So if you're interested in a nerdy entry keep on reading!

Cordoba is in Andalucia and as such was occupied by the Arabs for a much longer time than regions in the north. As a result, Cordoba has some really cool muslim architecture like the Mezquita, which is just mosque in Spanish. The Mezquita is absolutely huge! First there's a tower where originally the call to prayer would ring out, but after the Christians conquered Cordoba they converted it into a bell tower.

Inside the mosque is full of double arches made up of alternating red and white stones and a million columns. This structure is supposed to represent the palm trees of paradise after a muslim dies. It was amazing to see how many there were!

After the Christians conquered Cordoba, they took the middle of the mosque and made a Gothic cathedral. It's so weird to see the "mash-up" of not only styles but major religions.

There's also a castle in Cordoba but it was closed when we got there so we only got to see the outside.

On Sunday, we headed to Madinat al-Zahra, which is an archeological site outside of Cordoba. Madinat al-Zahra was the governmental capital of muslim Andalucia in the 10th century. The ruins were really cool, but it was steadily raining and I had no umbrella so to be honest my attention level was fairly low!

I think that the mixing of faiths was the most impressive thing about Cordoba for me. The intermingling of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity can be seen everywhere. There's a jewish quarter that has one of only two remaining synagogues in Spain, as well as the cathedral/mosque. I was just really fascinated by the interactions.

Well that's a very brief tour of Cordoba. I hope you embraced the nerdy blog!