Old Cordoba and Zuhiros

The city castle wall of old Cordoba

Arriving in Cordoba, drove into the central historic district, staging a scorching walk through the old Arab and Jewish quarters to the Mesquita mosque converted to a cathedral. We didn't explore the interior, because it is expensive and freely available on the internet, but have included a good set of representative images to show you what it is like.

Gardens by the wall

A series of images of narrow calles in the old bario

The road running along the walls of the Mesquita

The Mesquita

The garden of the Mesquita

Moorish arches (above) and hybrid Gothic and Moorish meeting (below)

Streets leading away from the Mesquita

On our ay back to the car, we made a detour to the Jewish neighbourhood and the Synagogue, while we missed the opening hours of by a few minutes but have also included here images of the interior to complete the picture and compensate for the dominant Christian and Muslim influence, especially since the Jewish quarter must have existed right through both the Moorish and Castilian periods.

Alleys in the Jewish sector of the bario

The neighbourhood of the Synagogue

The Synagogue interior

Jewish courtyard

The day was seriously hot enough to cause heat stroke when we had to walk several blocks back in the sun in haste to get to the car before the parking fees became extortionate.

Return to the city walls

Panorama of the Old City from across the river as we leave

From there we set off on a long trip out to Priego de Cordoba, another historic Spanish hill town which reputedly had a camping site nearby.

Castro del Rio

On the way we climbed in the late afternoon to a little cliff top town called Zuhiros famous for its Moorish Castle, bat caves and precipitously panoramic views from the central plaza overlooking the escarpment and surrounding terrain, managing to drive right up into it with the elderly men all gathered in the square in the cool of the late afternoon, after we cheekily drove up a no entry road except for citizens of Zuhiros.

Zuhiros

Panoramas approaching Zuhiros

Navigating our way up the narrow streets to the central park

Approaching the castle

Golden oldies - Old men of the village enjoying sunset together in the park

Panorama of the overlook

The Moorish castle