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Madinat Al-Zahra
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How it came to be
In 929 the Umayyad ruler Abd al-Rahman III proclaimed himself caliph. According to the sources, in 936 he began a new palace-city, Madinat al-Zahra, about 5 km west of Córdoba. By 945 he was living there, and in 947 the state offices, including the mint, moved over from Córdoba.
In 953-957 the vizier Abdallah ibn Badr oversaw the building of the Hall of Abd al-Rahman III. The caliph's envoys to the Byzantine emperor brought back gilded bronze sculptures and marble fountain basins. From 978 the powerful al-Mansur built a new seat, Madinat al-Zahira, and government moved there.
In the civil war of 1009-1010 the caliphate fell and the palace-city was destroyed, its stone reused elsewhere. Forgotten for almost a thousand years, it was excavated from 1911 under the architect Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, and only about a tenth has been dug so far. It was inscribed in 2018.
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