The Cordoba Flyby 10-28-25

We had a very peaceful night in Cordoba, our hotel is a 5 minute walk from the Great Mesquita/Cathedral, the reason for our visit. The hotel, La Llave de la Juderia, is a wonderful oasis in the midst of the old Jewish quarter. It was very quiet, quite comfortable and very reasonably priced. They welcomed us with a glass of sweet sherry in our room when we arrived and then provided a good breakfast at a reasonable price when we arose in the morning. 

We wanted to get to the Mesquita very early to avoid the crowds and possibly take advantage of the free entry.  However either it is no longer free or we were a few minutes too late, in any event we had to purchase tickets for the opening entry time.  So we were among the first wave of visitors for the 10:00 time slot and it seemed empty when we got in. When first entering it is difficult to appreciate just how large the area is because the lighting is very discreet, there are just rows of arches

trailing off into the darkness. It’s like looking at the mountains from Denver and seeing range upon range marching out to the horizon. Of course I’m exaggerating but you get the idea.  Originally the outer walls were pierced with multiple doors along the perimeter so that the Muslim worshipers could enter and leave through whichever entrance was most convenient. But when Cordoba was reconquered by the Spanish closed off the entrances and constructed chapels along the outer walls.  They also constructed a cathedral in the center which further impeded the sitelines.  At least someone back then appreciated the structure enough to preserve the larger part of it and as early as at least the 18th century projects were undertaken to preserve the original construction.  It’s not hard to see why it was designated a world heritage site because it really illustrates just how far ahead of the western world the Arabic architects were in their mastery of geometry and mathematics. We in the west still didn’t have the concept of zero in our math.  

Another interesting thing we saw was a display of the identifying marks made by the stone workers to keep a talley of the amount of work they produced determining how much they would be paid for their efforts. This is the same method as was used for the stone workers marks made during the construction of Pompeii, so an ancient system that survived for many hundreds of years.  There were well over a hundred that have thus far been identified and catalogued.

Deb was concerned about the possibility of large numbers of tourists taking the train out of Cordoba later in the day and lobbied for an early exit back to Sevilla.  So we retrieved our luggage from the hotel and walked a short way down to where the streets were a little wider and found a taxi to take us to the train station.  Given another opportunity we will stay longer in Cordoba but at a time with fewer tourists (if possible).