Cordoba

Today we visited the city of Cordoba in the Andalusia region of Spain.  I was not aware of the extreme Muslim and Jewish influences that the city possessed within its architecture and culture.  Within the city walls, the plaza was lined with orange trees and dates of palm.  The tour guide made it clear throughout the visit that after the Christian reconquest, many of the muslim and judaic structures were destroyed or leveled and used to build Christian places of worship.  This destruction of history does not allow for current day visitors to experience the true Muslim influence that Cordoba had.  This ancient capital of the Iberian Peninsula is now home to over 300,000 people and was once a flourishing mega-city located on the Guadalquivir River.  Being Roman Catholic, it is hard to imagine that a Bishop of Cordoba commissioned that a Muslim mosque be converted into a Catholic Cathedral due to the reconquest of the Christian religion.  The Cathedral of Cordoba holds precious gold and silver; however, the most impressive feature that it had was the colorful arches emblazoned with Arabic and Hebrew scriptures.