Anecdotes of a Globetrotter: Day 37 : Cordoba

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Day 37 : Cordoba

It’s good to be in a new city… Cordoba! Got in just before mid-day and I got a nice warm welcome by a group of people who were playing some music on their guitars and drums. Well, the parade wasn’t actually for me, it was just good timing I happen to be there when they were marching through the streets!

BUT this sign was for me! :D

As usual, I decided to take a walk to familiarise myself with the city, and made my way to the visitor information centre to get more details!

There were two buses going to Medina Azahara each day, located about 15km away from the city. One of the trips happened to be at 5pm in the evening.

So I booked myself onto it, and I must say it is very well organised, and the time they had factored in was just nice (4 hours in total including the bus journey there and back).

Basically there are 2 pick up points in the town area. During the drive, you will be entertained by a video production of what the Medina al-Zahara is all about, and you will also be provided with an illustrated guidebook about the history, the facades and the discovery of the site.

Medina Azahara is an archeological site which was founded in 940 by Abdul Al Rahman III, and was only discovered in recent years. Till now, only about 12% of the whole site has been excavated – the palace area proper of the royal residence which is organised in two sections : one public and the other private residential area.

Upon arrival at the museum of the archeological site, you will be ushered into a theatre (a good way to get out of the hot sun, which hit 47 degrees at one point today!) to watch another video, this time with a good simulation of how the historical site looked like in its hay days and a good walk-through of the various areas within the site and how people lived back in those days.

You will then get to walk around the museum to see its artefacts and its Islamic influence before proceeding outside to take another bus that will take you to the archeological site about 3 mins away.