Almost 800 years of Muslim, Christian and Jewish Spain, in stone, tiles and words.
In 711, an army from North Africa crossed the sea into Spain. For almost 800 years, large parts of the country were Muslim. Mosques, palaces, synagogues and churches still stand side by side.
Muslims called their part of Spain al-Andalus. Its capital, Córdoba, became one of the biggest cities in Europe, with a huge mosque, libraries and paved streets. Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in the same cities. They traded, argued, translated books and sometimes fought. Life was not equal: Christians and Jews paid an extra tax and had fewer rights. Slowly, Christian kingdoms in the north took back more and more land: Toledo, then Córdoba and Seville. Granada was the last Muslim kingdom, with the red palace of the Alhambra on its hill. In 1492 it fell too. In the same year, the Jews were forced to convert or leave. Look for horseshoe arches, star patterns and Arabic poems on the walls.
Pick a colour to follow one story. Every moment shows where you can still see it.
A Berber general, Tariq ibn Ziyad, lands near a big rock. It is still named after him: Gibraltar comes from Jabal Tariq, the Mountain of Tariq.
Abd al-Rahman, the last survivor of a royal family from Damascus, escapes to Spain. He makes Córdoba his capital.
Work starts on the Great Mosque of Córdoba. Later rulers make it bigger again and again, with a forest of red and white arches.
See it at: Mezquita-Catedral de CórdobaCaliph Abd al-Rahman III starts a palace city near Córdoba: Medina Azahara. Less than a hundred years later it lies in ruins.
See it at: Medina AzaharaCraftsmen carve a small ivory box for Subh, the favourite of Caliph al-Hakam II. Later she becomes one of the most powerful people in Córdoba.
See it at: National Museum of ArchaeologyKing Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo. Scholars in the city later translate Arabic books on science and philosophy into Latin.
Ibn Rushd, known in Europe as Averroes, is born in Córdoba. He is a judge, a doctor and a famous thinker about Aristotle.
Samuel ha-Levi, treasurer of King Pedro I, builds a beautiful synagogue in Toledo, with Hebrew and Arabic writing on the walls.
See it at: Museo SefardíIn Seville, King Pedro I builds a palace in Islamic style. Craftsmen from Toledo and Granada make the tiles and carved plaster.
See it at: Real Alcázar de SevillaOn 2 January, Sultan Boabdil hands Granada to Isabella and Ferdinand. Al-Andalus is over.
See it at: AlhambraThe museums and places where this story comes alive.
A mosque with a cathedral built right in the middle. Walk between the striped arches and find the golden mihrab, the prayer niche.
Palaces, courtyards and gardens on a hill above Granada. Read the walls: they are covered in Arabic poems. Book well ahead.
A royal palace that still serves the King of Spain when he visits. Look for the Arabic writing that praises a Christian king.
The museum of Spain's Jewish history, inside the El Tránsito synagogue. Look up at the carved wooden ceiling.
The ruins of the caliph's palace city, on a hillside outside Córdoba. Start in the museum, then walk down to the halls.
The national collection in Madrid has a big room on al-Andalus. Find the ivory box made for Subh in 964.
Gibraltar comes from Jabal Tariq, Arabic for 'the Mountain of Tariq'.
The chronicles say they hung upside down in the mosque as oil lamps.
The poems are in Arabic, carved into the plaster and tiles.