La Mezquita en Cordoba

We depart from Madrid and make our way south. The drive, while long, is beautiful. Vast fields of olive trees in perfect rows, with mountains in the distance. Later we drive into those mountains, the Sierra Morena, right through the only natural pass in the area. There are rocks all the way up on either side of the view from the bus.

We reach Cordoba early afternoon and visit the Mezquita, which is a weird mix of buildings. First a huge mosque, one of the Spanish kings allowed a church to be built physically inside the mosque. You had the sense that the church was trying to outdo the mosque, the styles were so different. First of all, the clocktower of the church is built right on top of the Muslim minaret of the mosque. 

The arches of the mosque were simple, yet repetitive. 

The church had a lot of decorative features, which was a sharp contrast to the simple double arches of the mosque. It is said that the king who gave permission for the church to be built visited the site after construction had begun and regretted that he had allowed part of such a unique structure to be compromised. 

Altar of the church--stark contrast to the arches

The depth of the place was what made it so awe-inspiring, given its lack of height, and it’s so hard to capture the depth on film.  Here's a little bit, with a close-up on the mihrab of the mosque.

Visiting this place was like checking off one of the sites featured in my old Spanish textbooks—I kept thinking of the pictures I saw in those books and being in awe that I was actually there, visiting one of those sites.