Baena, in the Highland domains< MORE ARTICLES According to Al-Idrisi, the noted 12th-century geographer from Ceuta, the city of Bayyana (Baena) was “a large fortress built on an elevated land which rises above the olive groves, wheat fields and fig trees that...

​The vanished Arab monuments of Granada < MORE ARTICLES The capital of the Nasrid kingdom was extraordinarily populated for its time, with a considerable architectonic density. At the beginning of the 19th century, there were still many remains that survived from...

Niebla, alone and distant< MORE ARTICLES Surrounded by the biggest walled enclosure of Europe, Niebla has important artistic treasures from different eras and distinct backgrounds. Its history deserves to be told.The old road linking Seville to Huelva crossed the...

Walks through CórdobaIn the present-day Cordoba flutters its glorious past, that officially dates back to 152 BC, when praetor Claudius Marcellus turned the city into a patrician colony and the capital city of the Roman province Hispania Ulterior. It was then the...

Benjamín of Tudela: through sacred geography< MORE ARTICLES Benjamin of Tudela was ahead of other famous travellers such as Ibn Jubair or Ibn Battuta, who wrote about their journeys through works known as rihla, a genre in which our author produced his travel book...

Walks through Almería  "When the castle of Almeria comes to sight, you will be close to an ocean of generosity, its port made of pearl and coral. As you depart from there, your heart will be filled with memories." Ibn Darray al-Qastalli The Cerro de la Alcazaba...

Zuheros, the memorable view< MORE ARTICLES Glimpsed from afar, the rocky nature of this village on The Route of the Caliphate lets us know in advance the beauty of the place and its marvellous surroundings.Halfway along the road that ascends at a crawl over karstic...

Abu Hamid al-Garnati and the wonders of the world < MORE ARTICLES Abu Hamid al-Garnati was an important figure from Granada who wrote about a considerable number of subjects throughout his ninenty years. For his travel stories he followed the Arab tradition of the...

Espejo, the sentinel on the hill < MORE ARTICLES Thanks toits status as a border land with the Kingdom of Granada,the town of Espejo, in the province of Córdoba, is one of the most interesting stopovers on the Route of the Caliphate, promoted by the Foundation El...

Saints and romerías in the Maghreb and Andalusia< MORE ARTICLES Neither the soul, nor popular religiosity understand particular religions and borders. They have more to do with the paths that Ortega y Gasset called “Intrahistory” and those of life itself..When I...

Madjrit, al-Andalus’ Madrid (Part II)< MORE ARTICLES Madrid once belonged to al-Andalus. Scarcely 150 years after Tarik disembarked on the Iberian Peninsula, Muhammad Ibn Abd-er-Rahman al-Awsat, emir of Córdoba, decided to build a wall around Madjri t . From then...

Ronda, the city of a hundred views< MORE ARTICLES Let’s take a journey toward Takurunna, the Hispano-Muslim city that wavered between the domination of the Marinids from Morocco and the Nasrids from Granada. Now called Ronda, its charms are inscribed along the...

Priego in its labyrinth  < MORE ARTICLES Priego de Córdoba counts its history over the course of centuries among Caliphal, Nasrid and Baroque traits, and it still remains there. Gracefully showing its castle to the traveller, its Carnicerías Reales (Royal...

Madjrit, al-Andalus’ Madrid (Part I)< MORE ARTICLES Madrid once belonged to al-Andalus. Scarcely 150 years after Tarik disembarked on the Iberian Peninsula, Muhammad Ibn Abd-er-Rahman al-Awsat, emir of Córdoba, decided to build a wall around Madjri t . From then...

Lanjarón: A poet’s dream < MORE ARTICLESThe history of La Alpujarra had already appeared in texts of the classical authors of old. Lanjarón is famous in our days for its medicinal waters, for being the threshold of this Granadan region and the obligatory way for...

Glorious tiles  < MORE ARTICLES Appearing in parks, squares, bars and homes, tiles—azulejos-- have for centuries accompanied the decoration in many regions of the Mediterranean. Today, they are as alive as ever; in fact, their designs are new and...

Ziryab, the amazing story of the singer from Baghdad< MORE ARTICLESThe importance of the figure of Ziryab in the court of the Cordoban Umayyad king Abd-er-Rahman II is credited for the innovations he introduced in the court and Cordoban society in several fields....

The awareness of landscape in al-Andalus< MORE ARTICLES For the civilization of al-Andalus, landscape constituted the image of a reality in which its values are preserved and granted symbolic dimension.The renowned historian Ibn al-Khatib, stateman, philosopher,...

Qusayr 'Amra. The umayyad palace of the desert (Part II)< More articles     By Antonio Almagro Gorbea   The originality of the architecture of this monument, including its poetic frame of desert solitude, makes it a major milestone in the history of Arab...

Qusayr 'Amra. The umayyad palace of the desert (Part I)< More articles By Antonio Almagro Gorbea   The originality of the architecture of this monument, including its poetic frame of desert solitude, makes it a major milestone in the history of Arab art....

Orchards of al-Andalus. The development of domestic agriculture< More articles The cultural legacy of al-Andalus is, without doubt, a constant element in the villages, towns and cities included in the Routes of El legado andalusí. In the Route of the Caliphate, in...

Venice, the temptation of the Orient (Part II) < More articles An eternally luminous showcase where fragility and excess play together with grace, in Venice everything distils artifice. The most magnificent of urban events, as Le Corbusier pointed out, is a city...

  Venice, the temptation of the Orient (Part I)< More articles An eternally luminous showcase where fragility and excess play together with grace, in Venice everything distils artifice. The most magnificent of urban events, as Le Corbusier pointed out, is a city...

  Ifriqiya, a cultural and commercial center in Northern Africa< More articles The great strategic importance of the city of Carthage made it an impregnable stronghold for the Arab armies in their attempt to penetrate the North of Africa. Hence, it was...

  The silk from Granada  < More articlesThe development of the silk industry in Nasrid Granada represented a significant economic boom, and hence social growth; merchants from different parts of the world came to the city to purchase the precious Granadan...

  Sicily’s Mediterranean Heritage < More articlesIn the middle of the Mare Nostrum, where the coastal lands of East and West meet, the island of Sicily represents a sort of omphalós of the ancient world, a point of transit and, at the same time, of belonging.In the...

  The Music of Al-Andalus, a Shared Heritage< More articlesThanks to oral tradition, Arab-Andalusian music has survived through generations until todayUntil the past few decades, the music from Al-Andalus was hardly known to any but specialists, or by curious...