The Other Spot

“Looking at an unknown god
to an unnamed god,
a God without form,
a god with no beginning or end.

Thinking about a God who is eternal,
that one is absolute and,
that is within us and outside us,
that is before and after
the whole visible creation.

Thinking and looking and feeling,
silent flow of life,
within us, in us,
by ourselves,
we approach the temple,
we got to the qibla.

And here we cease all
not to feel, not look,
not thinking.

Being only be ”

(Antonio Enrique-1991)

This beautiful poem reflects perfectly the mood of those who go step by step through that magic temple, surrounded by colorful columns and keystones, red and white that seem to mark a path not marked in a confusing maze of light and shadow. Advancing through it without dropping the eyes, always looking at their bows and their roofs, we hear amid the sound of silence, how our steps on the marble are lost on a route without order or final.

But let’s start with what is perhaps one of the most beautiful places that we can find in Cordoba Caliphate city that hosts this impressive work of art that is the Mosque: the Patio de los Naranjos. Situémosnos at its center, and try to smell them in April and May of orange blossoms, a freshness, a freedom. And wrapped in that warm smell, remember how in the Arab era, there in that same courtyard were performed ablution, as dispensed justice at the gates of the temple, we will look to another of its sides, and see how, now astronomers, mathematicians and many, many scholars who populated the Cordoba of that time spreading their knowledge among the people on the street, little theaters and now comedians and entertained with their legends and stories to children, who sat swirled around him. El Patio de los Naranjos, today, is considered the oldest living garden of Europe since its beginnings date back to 784, under the leadership of Abd al-Rahman I. If nitially, these gardens were composed mainly of cypress and palm trees, orange trees today are those that invade ninety-oho orange trees were planted during the eighteenth century. Sixteenth century, by contrast, are the cloisters that in one side of the garden can be seen. The exhibition of one hundred thirty feet, and closed, is divided into three gardens in the center is a beautiful fountain.

… And once admired and aspired the pleasant atmosphere of this magnificent garden, the heart will shrink to set foot inside the temple and see the impressive first Hall of Columns … more than 800 columns and arches that are distributed geometrically and that lie beyond the light at the bottom, in a landscape without end. It was the same Abd al-Rahman I, which began construction, building his first oratory in the mid-eighth century, inspired by a mosque that existed at that time in Jerusalem. The result was the construction of eleven naves with 110 columns of marble and granite, with Roman and Byzantine capitals. Above them, vaulted arches in red and white colors. His descendant, Abd al-Rahman III ordered the minaret erected half a century later, while Al-Hakam II extended the mosque a dozen other stretches. In the subsequent reign of Al-Manzor is the part where the columns are of marble blue, when it nearly doubled in size the surface of the Mosque, reaching 24,000 m2 it has.

The mihrab

They belong to the reign of Al-Hakam II, perhaps the two most beautiful parts of the temple: the mihrab, decorated in marble richly carved, and the octagonal dome of Kibla with interlaced arches. Of this period include the marble Corinthian capitals and a pale blue and pink.

The construction inside of the Christian cathedral was perhaps one of the greatest aberrations that may have been made concerning reform in the architectural, as it destroyed a part of the works produced during the reign of Abd al-Rahman III and Mansur. Its construction started under the supervision of Hernán Ruiz the Elder in 1523, by express order of Charles V, but was not completed until 1766. It combines the Gothic styles, Plateresque, Renaissance and Baroque nave and transept are in Latin Cross, with Gothic arches. The area of the minaret tower in the courtyard, from the Arab era that was called to prayer, was covered with Baroque elements, and therefore covers all those Arabs who remains composed.

Should be awarded to two curiosities in this building: first, any mosque is supposed to be oriented toward Mecca …. this particular one, despite being the third largest in the world, it is not, because their orientation is toward Damascus, a city that had a passion for his inspiring Abd al-Rahman I. Second, the status of the mihrab. The mihrab is the most sacred place of any Arab tmeplo therefore reminds the site occupied by the Prophet Muhammad Mosque in Medina. It is the arch or other location in the center of the wall of Kibla, which marks the direction of Mecca. In the case of the Cordoba mosque, the mihrab is not located in the center of the temple, where it should be, and this is because he made the subsequent extension Mansur, who carry it out through the eastern part, because he no longer had more space on the other sides left off center location.