Cordoba

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Tourists go to Cordoba basically to see the ‘Mezquita-Cathedral’. Then, if time permits they will see other things like the Jewish Quarter, the Moorish Baths, The Alcazar and if they can, they visit ‘Medina Al Zahara’, a palace-complex about 7 kms away from Cordoba.

The ‘Mezquita-Cathedral’ should actually be called ‘Roman Temple-Visigothic Church-Muslim Mezquita-Catholic Cathedral’.

However, I am just going to call it ‘Mezquita’ for the sake for brevity.

This is one building which has disparate, diverse elements from the Roman, Moorish and Christian eras and which have become combined into a handsome whole – by a lucky chance, I am afraid, not by any ingenious human design.

Elsewhere in Andalucia, the Roman and Moorish ruins as well as Catholic churches occupy separate locations. Sometimes, the mosques have been just converted into churches with a little modification.

However, in Cordoba, the columns of the Roman buildings were used to build a mosque and after the ‘reconquest’, two chapels were built right inside the mosque, keeping the rest of the mosque intact.

Thus the columns of the mosque (Mezquita means mosque) are from the pieces of the Roman temple that originally stood here, as well as from other Roman buildings; and as a consequence, they are not uniform. They are made out of different stones, jasper, onyx, marble, granite, have different colors and patterns and were of different length.

When using the columns, the Moors buried the long columns deeper in the earth, while two short columns were combined into a single to achieve uniform height for the mosque.

Like the modern-day kitchen, the mosque had a ‘modular design’ and so could be extended in any direction just by adding a row of columns with double arches in between them and adding a flat roof over it.

{ The red and white double arches look more like bent X-mas candy than anything else. Is this what they mean by 'eye-candy' ? In fact, the mosque part looks like confectionery, while the white Church interior looks like icing on a cake. Yes, you guessed it right. I do have a sweet tooth. }

Successive Moorish kings did exactly that and increased the width of the mosque, with the result that the ‘mihrab’ is not in the center but is towards the right of the mosque. Neither does it face towards Mecca like other mosques do. This must be some strange oversight on the part of the Moors.

After the ‘Re-Conquest’ of Spain by the Catholic monarchs, the Christians built two chapels right in the midst of the mosque.

The architectural styles of the mosque and the chapels built inside are totally dissimilar. In the forest of thin Moorish columns, the high-vaulted, thick, square columned church looks like an anomaly.

Imagine a giant Californian Redwood tree (Sequoia Gigantica) in the midst of a grove of coconut palms. That is how the eye perceives the ‘Mezquita-Cathedral’.

What is most surprising is that the whole effect is still pleasing to the eyes, just like a natural forest where tall trees and small shrubs co-exist side-by-side.

Perhaps, non-uniformity is the law of nature.

The single Minaret of the mosque was converted into a bell-tower of the church.

The Moors might have destroyed the Roman temple and other Roman buildings but the massive bridge that the Romans built over the river Guadalquivir is still being used as an approach to the Mezquita.

Inside the outer wall of Mezquita, first we come to the ‘Place of ‘Oranges’, which is a court-yard with orange-trees and where Muslims used to do their ablutions before entering a mosque.

Adjoining the Mezquita Is the Jewish Quarter with narrow, winding roads flanked by large, spacious, white-washed houses, that sport cute little balconies on the outside.

The Moorish Public Baths are now in disrepair but give a good idea of the building meant for this important function.

Bathing was a weekly or monthly affair. Scarcity of water must be the reason for this practice.

We did not have time to visit the Alcazar (Castle) and the road leading to the ‘waterwheel’ had been closed to the tourists.

We could not visit Medina Al Zahara also for the lack of time.

We were still immensely satisfied with the day’s sightseeing and came back to Malaga quite happy.

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