It has been 100 years since excavations started on the Madinat Al Zahra, the magnificent 10th century palace city near Cordoba in southern Spain.
Although only 11% of the city – built by the powerful caliph Abd Al Rahman III – has been uncovered, it is unlikely that it will take another century to unearth the remainder of the site given the rapid advances in excavation technology.
In a curious parallel, new techniques such a tele-imaging, that are being used in order to understand the 115-hectare site, reflect the revolutionary building techniques developed here a thousand years ago, and which came to define the distinct “Andalucian style”.
A nearby museum completed on the site in 2008 and shortlisted for this year’s Aga Khan Award for Architecture, is the base where research and restoration is carried out on objects recovered from the archaeological site.
Ismailimail 