Plank Road: Medinat al-Zahra (Medina Azahara)

In 926, Abd al-Rahman III began to build the magnificent palace of Medinat al-Zahra, just west of Cordoba. Pillaged Roman masonry was used in construction. Contrary to legend, building materials were local limestone, and marble from Portugal, rather than exotic marble brought from North Africa. Artisans and craftsmen were brought in from the Byzantine empire as the caliph had good relations with the Byzantines. The throne room was exquisite and the Hall of the Caliphs was richly decorated, many thought the palace was overly ostentatious.

Medinat al-Zahra was more than a palace for the caliphs, there were mosques, baths, markets, workshops, gardens and residential areas. Water was a very important aspect of the Muslim architecture in al-Andalus, as there were gardens, pools and baths. The Muslims used an old Roman aqueduct, upgraded the water system and brought water to the site.

By 948, administration was moved to Medinat al-Zahra from Cordoba. Both Christians and Jews could rise to prominent positions in Cordoba while the most senior positions continued to be held by Muslims, the poor Berbers were still regarded as second class citizens in the tenth century.

The authority of the caliph in al-Andalus was damaged when Hisham II became caliph when he was a young boy, rule was taken over by Al-Mansur who essentially became a military dictator. When Hisham II came of age he had no interest in the caliph. Al-Mansur raided Christian cites for plunder, slaves and treasure. After the death of Al-Mansur, his son continued to raid and Christian mercenary soldiers were employed in the Muslim armies.

Both al-Mansur and his son drafted scores of Berber tribes into the Muslim armies, this was risky for the caliphate of Cordoba as the Berbers were loyal to al-Mansur and not to the caliphate of Cordoba. The Berbers were disliked and mistrusted by the general population.

In the eleventh century, things came apart in al-Andalus as the Umayyad dynasty attempted to regain control while the Berber generals chose a rival. The Berbers captured Medinat al-Zahra, destroyed the palace and used it as a garrison for troops. They also blockaded Cordoba for 2.5 years, the city fell in 1013, the city was destroyed and the population massacred.

For the next 15 years Cordoba was ruled by a series of puppet caliphs who all met violent ends. The last caliph, Hisham III, was expelled in 1031 and the caliphate of Cordoba came to an end.

After inundating this blog with history, I will mete it out in smaller amounts from now on and stop here for today.

This was a travel day, we packed up this morning, checked out of our wonderful apartment and walked to the train station to get our rental car. The rental car agency happened to be located at the bus station across the street but one never has this type of information beforehand. We got our small KIA and took off to Medinat al-Zahra, which is just 9 km from Cordoba.

The place was just teeming with Spaniards, the parking lot was packed, so they had us park in a laneway which was soon filled by us and with other cars. Buses full of visitors come from Cordoba as well. First we walked to the information centre, the admission was only 1.50 euro and is free for people of the EU. There is a pretty good museum there and then a 30 minute film to watch that is computer generated with moving figures, albeit, moving rather stiffly. The film was in Spanish but had English subtitles and it gave a very good overview of the Medinat al-Zahra. Once again, we were impressed with the polite disposition of the Spanish people.

Visitors must then board a bus to travel 3km uphill to the archaeological site, the lineups for the busses were long but we had decided to walk to the site anyway. We were the only nutty people on foot, walking along the road. It was sunny and rather hot, luckily we both took our hats or we would have burned. The Spanish were clad in winter boots, some even had puffy jackets on, John and I were in thin shirts and we were boiling.

Sine the Medinat al-Zahra was completely destroyed and used as a quarry for years, the excavation has resulted in a heavily restored site. So, we really don’t know how accurate the reconstruction is and a lot of the reconstruction looks very fake, well it is fake.

We spend several hours at Medinat al-Zahra then took-off on the absolutely fantastic Spanish highway system to an area south of Cordoba where we will stay for ten days. Coming from the horror show that are Saskatchewan highways, we are thrilled to be driving on the best highways we have ever seen. The pavement is pristine, the signage excellent, the main highways are double lane and even the little roads off into the olive groves are super.

Just outside Cordoba there are very young cereal crops along with olive trees, then the wine region of Montilla and their grape vines, and then you drive though nothing but solid olive trees. We are staying in the olive groves, our little cottage is part of a three-unit affair, two are for guests and the owners live next door, they are British expats. It is nothing but olive trees, up and down the steep hillsides. The olive harvest has been ongoing, an olive plant that sorts olives is just down the hill, they used to press oil there but ceased pressing this year.

The Great Portico - a ceremonial entrance, it had 14 archways