Guided Visit to Medina Azahara

General information

Destination	Category
Cordoba, Spain	Sightseeing Tours

Program details

Medina Azahara, or Madinat az-Zahra, meaning “shining town” in Arabic is the ruins of a vast, fortified Arab Muslim mediaeval palace-city, built by the first Umayyad Caliph of Cordoba, Ad-ar-Rahman III, located 8km outside the city of Cordoba in the foothills of the Sierra Morena mountains. In this guided tour you’ll learn all about the fascinating history of this complex, known as the Islamic Versailles.

Medina Azahara was built as a symbol of the new Caliphate and became the de facto capital of Muslim Spain, as government and administration was within its walls. Building started in 936 – 940 and the city boasted ceremonial reception halls, mosques, administrative and government offices, gardens, a mint, workshops, barracks, residences, and baths. Water was supplied through aqueducts. However the city was burned down and razed to the ground during civil unrest in the early 11th Century.

The complex today is still impressive and is one of the most important archaeological sites in Spain. The tour will start with a visit to the underground visitors’ centre. Have a look around the extensive collection of artefacts on display in the museum as you learn all about the history of the shing city, supposedly built for a favourite concubine from the Caliph’s harem.

Next we’ll explore the site itself. You’ll be awed by the remains of the huge reception halls and ruined mosque. Walk around the old gardens, conceived as a reconstruction of paradise on earth, watered by irrigations channels and myriad marbled fountains spouting from bronze representations of lions, horses and griffins.

As you relax in the shade, it’s not difficult to imagine the sound of trickling water in marble fountains, the air scented by jasmine, honeysuckle and rose, the stone of the palace buildings tinged pink by the rising sun, as the caged nightingales sing.

Meeting/ pick-up point: Paseo de la Victoria. At the stop outside the Hotel Eurostars Palace..
Start/opening time: Tourist bus 10.45am. Otherwise 11am
Languages: English and Spanish.
Others: Includes guided tour of visitors’ centre and site and shuttle bus to archaeological complex.