Ruines of the Moorish Muslim/Islamic caliphate city Medina Azahara, Caliphate of Cordoba, UNESCO World Heritage site 2018, Spain
The city was founded in 940 or 941, by the Caliph Abd al-Rahman III as the seat of the newly created Caliphate of Córdoba. However, it was short lived being destroyed in 1010 during the riots which brought about the end of this Caliphate. Even so, the magnificence of its ruins was acclaimed by XI-century Andalusian poets. After slowly being abandoned and after the Christian occupation, the city fell into oblivion, so much so, that even its very existence was forgotten, thus converting it into an intangible mythical reference to the Golden Age in a faraway western point of Islam. The neglect of the city and the fact that it was completely forgotten (indeed, after nearly six centuries the location where the city stood turned into a meadow) has meant that its ruins have been perfectly conserved. Once the excavations began a century ago in 1911, the city’s archaeological remains began to be recovered. This work has continued up until the present day and will go on far into the future. The archaeological research has uncovered a planned structured city, within a walled site. It is in a perfectly geometrical rectangle of approximately 1500 metres across east to west, and 750 metres north to south.
Size: 2816px × 2112px
Location: Cordoba, Spain
Photo credit: © MuslimPhotos.Net / Athar Akram / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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