Abd al-Rahman III began building Madinat al-Zahra in 936 as a new seat of government outside the city. It was laid out on terraces down a hillside, with the caliph's halls at the top and the town below, and it was enormously expensive.
It lasted about seventy years. In the civil war that ended the caliphate it was sacked, around 1009–1010, and afterwards it was quarried for its stone. What remains is a excavated ruin, a fraction of it uncovered.
⭐ The Salón Rico, the reception hall of Abd al-Rahman III, is the reason to come. Its carved panels and horseshoe arches have been substantially reconstructed from fallen material, and they show what the caliphal court actually looked like.
It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. The museum below the site is modern, largely underground, and worth the time before you go up.
⚠️ Getting there needs planning — it is outside the city and the site is a walk from the museum. Check what runs on the day before you commit an afternoon to it.
Medina Azahara, photographed
