The Mezquita, Córdoba

Córdoba began it's quest to be the city that everyone was talking about in the 8th century, after the Moorish conquest.  Part of that quest invovled building several hundred mosques and public buildings--for the greatest mosque of all, the Mezquite, they did the time honored thing--they built it on someone else's house of worship, in this case, a Roman church. By the time of the Mezquita,  Córdoba rivaled the splendours of Constantinople, Damascus and Baghdad (the other spectacular cities of that time).

This is an incredible building, where the repetition of a theme and the enormity of the finished work convinces you that some people really believe. The hundreds of arches made of alternating red and white stone are stunning to look at, and the whole effect was dazzling for me.  I quickly lost track of my family, myself, and what I was doing, and just let the atmosphere wash over me.  In the interest of full disclosure, no one else in my family felt the least bit in awe of the place, and they were all more or less ready to go soon after we entered the place.

The construction of the Mezquita wasn't quick--it lasted for over two centuries, starting in 784 AD under the supervision of the emir of Cordoba, Abd ar-Rahman I. Under Abd ar-Rahman II (822-52), the Mezquita held an original copy of the Koran and an arm bone of the prophet Mohammed, making it a major Muslim pilgrimage site.  When it was finally finished, the Mezquita was the most magnificent of the more than 1,000 mosques in Cordoba. But Cordoba was subject to frequent invasion and each conquering wave added their own mark to the architecture.  A minaret here, a courtyard there--they all wanted to leave their mark on this very special place.

In 1236, Córdoba was captured from the Moors by King Ferdinand III of Castile and became Christian once again. The newcomers left the architecture Mezquita largely undisturbed - they simply consecrated it, dedicated it to the Virgin Mary, and used it as a place of Christian worship.  No muss, no fuss.  The center of Córdoba is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which is a thank you from the modern world to the ancient one that they left such a special place intact.