Mezquita - Great Mosque of Cordoba

Within the inner sanctum of the mezquita is a church where the light streams in so gloriously... the divine light, is an unknown and mysterious communication from the father, the son, and the holy ghost (aka the big kahuna) to express himself through spiritual means, rather than through physical capacities. i approach the guard of this sanctum and asked him in a very serious and spiritual manner, "hueles a naranjas?" <do you smell oranges?> he laughed. off to the side were a bunch of suspicious looking chinese tourists amongst a citrus scent was that was unmistakeable. neither muslim nor christian in belief, the chinese tribe is aetheist, practical, and profane -- orange eaters in holy sites. i suspected one of the pack was hungry and picked an orange from a tree in the courtyard and peeled it as a snack. continuing my line of spiritual questioning, i asked, "dónde está el baño?" <where is the bathroom?> used to this question, he points me to the bathrooms in the corner of the complex. 

encircling the church are a field of columns. to get to the bathrooms, one has to traverse a grid of 850 double arched candy cane columns made of japser, onyx, marble and granite. the spanish catholic church makes a point of showing the layers of previous christian occupation from the site predating mezquita to justify forbidding the mezquita from being used as a mosque today. in front of the bathrooms are a series of glass display cases of christian archaeological fragments showing how the moors plundered material from the sacked remains of roman temples and visigoth churches and used it for their arches. legend has it, in 711 AD when the moors overtook andalusia, the visigoth church structure was split in half, muslims worshipped on one side, christians on the other. by 784, rahman evicted the christians, demolished the church and started building the mosque. in the 10th century, al mansur rode his horse into satiago de compostela, had his horse drink from its cathedral's holy fountians, then melted its bells into lantern lights for the mosque. 

unlike today, where cordoba boasts a 34% unemployment rate, fast flowing sepia toned river, and a lonely accordion player on its roman bridge, back in the 900's, cordoba was the pinnacle of civilization with running water, street lights, shops, and a library of 400,000 books. jews christians and muslims coexisted. in 929 AD, the ummayads claimed cordoba as their capital and mezquita was their jewel.. the second largest mosque in islam. its distinctive forest of arches support vaults which define naves... some of which have simple side-lit skyight monitors which illuminate the canopy modestly... like sunlight coming through leaves, the light is understated and muted. in the past, there was no north wall between the mosque and the courtyard. in fact, the lines of vaults opened to the courtyard allowing rows of interior columns to appear like extension of the lines of trees. exterior and interior were fused. 

today you see dried up channels and fountains set into the courtyard paving terminating sadly  into the north facade. 1100 years ago, 20,000 muslims regularly flowed in an out of the building for their 5 daily salat prayers. the fountains and channels coursed with running water for those practicing wudu or ritual purification. before formal prayers or handling qurans, the mosque goers would partake in islamic ablutions and wash their face, arms and elbows 3 times and both feet up to the ankles. "for god loves those who turn to him constantly and he loves those who keep themselves pure and clean." water was scarce in desert regions of muslim empire. for them life and knowledge originated from water, not from light as in christianity. water wasn't limited to bathroom sink and toilet 'ablutions' in the corner of the building, it was an integral part of the entry and mosque experience.

as part of the aetheist orange eating tribe with no skin in the game, i couldn't care less whether the mihrab points south like the damascus mosque rather than southeast like the mecca mosque, or whether cordoba was recaptured by the christians in 1235, or that by 1236 ferdinand III had the mezquite lanterns melted back into bells, or by the 16th century, charles V added the  church in the middle, or that the bell tower was built 93 meters high in place of the minaret... i care for the the religious experience of architecture- the sublime choreographed flows of nature and activity.