Excursion to Córdoba

Last friday, we took a day trip to Córdoba, stopping first at Medina Azahara, the city built by Abd al-Rahman III to demonstrate the power and wealth of his reign among other political reasons. All that remains of it now are the ruins that we visited, pictured below. 

Once in Córdoba, we did very little besides eat lunch and visit the mosque (though the ticket claimed it was a cathedral... lies). Below: some old looking buildings and horse-drawn carriages (I've been wanting to ride in one...).

The tower of the mosque has become the symbol of Córdoba, and it is easy enough to see why. The following three pictures are all of this tower.

The interior of the mosque was beautiful and huge, with rows and rows of red and white arcs.

There was some of the most elaborate decorations I have ever seen in this mosque. Below, the mihrab. 

And, to throw in one of my ceiling pictures, the domed roof above the mihrab:

Easily the strangest thing about this mosque was, however, that it hid a cathedral (two actually, but only one was super impressive) in its depths... The cathedral (pictured below) was in the middle and contrasted starkly with the mosque that engulfed it. Apparently, after the Christian conquest, the Christians decided the mosque was too pretty to destroy, so they just built their cathedral inside. Makes sense, I guess, as strange as it was to see paintings of Jesus hanging on the mosque walls.

That's it for the Córdoba visit. Time is really flying here. I realized a few days ago that I have 12 (or maybe less) measly weeks left, and have already used up 6. My time in Spain is 1/3 over, so I'm going to need to start making the most of what I have left. I'll let you know how that goes.