Posted by I finished the major tourist sports in Sevilla and ate my fill of paella in just over a day and two nights. So on Puja’s advice, I took a rapide train to see the Great Mosque at Córdoba (La Mezquita).
A little background. I love mosque architecture, despite its seeming connection to indigenous Arab culture. Visiting the Sultan Ahmet msoque (the Blue Mosque), depite the bad lighting, was truly a thrill and the major reason I went to Istanbul.
The Mezquita wasn’t far behind because of its unique approach to design. Mos mosques fight to touch the sky. La Mezquita is broad. It has 66 doors around it and 110 columns supporting its girth. When the doors are open, the interplay of light and shadow through the colulmns is spectacular. Or rather it was spectacular. It represent(ed) one of the crowning achievements of Moorish architecture.
And then the Christians dropped a cathedral in the middle of it and closed all the doors to build shrines in their place. It’s a tragedy really. You can see what it should look like whichc makes what it is all the more sad. haare allah.
