La Mezquita Interior - Cordoba - Spain

One of the highlights of my travels was a visit to the Mezquita in Cordoba, Spain. Here is another view of the interior.... more

by Tony Crehan

Title

La Mezquita Interior - Cordoba - Spain

Artist

Tony Crehan

Medium

Photograph

Description

One of the highlights of my travels was a visit to the Mezquita in Cordoba, Spain. Here is another view of the interior.

The Mezquita dates back to the 10th century when C�rdoba reached its zenith under a new emir, Abd ar-Rahman 111 who was one of the great rulers of Islamic history. At this time C�rdoba was the largest, most prosperous cities of Europe, outshining Byzantium and Baghdad in science, culture and the arts. The development of the Great Mosque paralleled these new heights of splendour.

When the mosque was used for Moslem prayer, all nineteen naves were open to the outside courtyard allowing these rows of interior columns to appear like an extension of the orange trees with brilliant shafts of sunlight filtering through.

The architect introduced another, horseshoe-shaped arch above the lower pillars. A second and purely aesthetic innovation was to alternate brick and stone in the arches, creating the red and white striped pattern which gives a unity and distinctive character to the whole design. There are more than 850 coloured granite jasper and marble pillars in total. Sunlight streams in from windows in the four cupolas creating interesting effects combined with artificial light from the thousands of small oil lights.

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April 13th, 2016