La Mezquita, or the Grand Mosque, in Córdoba, Spain is truly one of the wonders of the world. Built during the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries by the Moors on land earlier occupied by a Visigothic cathedral, which was in turn built on top of an earlier Roman temple, the interior space created by the hundreds of stone pillars supporting the double arches is like a cool forest in the otherwise blistering desert of Al-Andalus (Andalucía). The central portion of La Mezquita now supports a Catholic cathedral built by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in the 1520s.

I love the fact that the stone columns, salvaged and reused by the Visigoths and then by the Moors, have been touched by countless millions of visitors over the centuries, giving them a darker patina within hand’s reach.

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