The Great Mosque of Córdoba (La Mezquita)

Once the principal mosque of western Islam and still known as La Mezquita, Córdoba's Great Mosque is one of the largest in the world and the finest achievement of Moorish architecture in Spain. In spite of later alterations that carved out its center to build a Catholic cathedral at its heart, the Great Mosque ranks with the Alhambra in Granada as one of the two most splendid examples of Islamic art and architecture in western Europe.

Building materials from Roman and Visigothic buildings were used in the construction, which began in 785, and by 1000, it had grown to its present dimensions, its prayer hall with no fewer than nineteen aisles. No matter where you stand or which direction you look, its rows of columns and rounded Moorish arches line up in symmetrical patterns.

Other top tourist attractions of Córdoba include the flower-bedecked patios in the Judería (old Jewish quarter) near the Great Mosque; the Palacio de Viana, a 15th-century aristocratic palace; and the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, the former Caliphal Palace that Catholic king Fernando III took over in the 13th century. Narrow, winding streets; small squares; and low whitewashed houses fill the Judería, lending a Moorish atmosphere inherited from its past.