cordoba is very moreish...

I'm pleased to finally be in Cordoba - it's a town with all the qualities I like in a place: small, navigable on foot, history, lovely scenery, a bit of old Roman stuff and damned good coffee.

It has been a pleasant three days here in a nice hotel overlooking the river and the old Roman bridge.







But of course my main reason for the visit is to see the Great Mosque or Mezquita as it is also known, a building I studied in art at high school and had always wanted to see 'in the flesh' so to speak.

It is unusual in that after the Catholic Reconquista a Christian cathedral was plonked down in the middle of an Islamic mosque. And not always sympathetically I might add. But seeing as the site was originally a pagan temple I don't think anyone can really complain!

Anyhoo it was a delight to wander for a couple of hours under that wonderful hypostyle hall.















Of course throw in a museum with some Roman artifacts and I'm the proverbial pig in doo doos.




bacchic heads




roman glass funerary urn found inside the ceramic one pictured below




gladiator epitaph






in situ amphitheatre seating under the museum

I also wandered around the castle which had some lovely gardens as well as some excellent Roman mosaics and a beautifully carved Roman marble sarcophagus.










sarcophagus




and of course a door