Pictures to express the heat of the moment, the moment of past-times. Who found this place, when and why…

Abd al-Rahman III took the title of caliph of al-Andalus in 929 and, to show off his newly acquired power, he ordered, seven years later, his own palace residence to be built, Madinat al-Zahra.

Perhaps in memory of such cities as Baghdad or Samarra, he decided to have the buildings constructed. He chose a large extension of land for the palatine city on the slope of Sierra Morena to the Northwest of the city of Cordova, overlooking the river Guadalquivir. According to the Arab chronicles, it took forty years to finish the construction work, until the death of Caliph al-Hakam II and huge sums of money were invested to maintain the army of crafsmen employed, some of whom had come from Constantinople and Baghdad, and who worked with materials of great value, expressly brought from the best quarries. Abd al-rahman III established the administrative headquarters of Muslim Spain in al-Zahra, moving the whole of his Court from Cordova.