My trip to Andalusia ( March 2008)

• I am going to talk to you about my trip to Andalusia which took place in March 2008. We visited some monuments in three towns of this region, the blazons of which you can see here . First, I’ll talk about Seville, then Cordoba and finally Granada.

Trip in Andalusia march 2008

Sevilla’s blazon

Granada’s blazon

Cordoba’s blazon

• Sevilla's cathedral is composed of the cathedral and the Giralda, an old minaret. The Giralda is very high, I didn't go to the top because I felt dizzy. In the cathedral, we could stay in front of Christopher Collombus' tomb for a while.

Sevilla, capital of Andalucia 1/3Sevilla’s cathedral

• Near the cathedral, we visited the Alcazar's palace. In this rather dry region, its gardens showed us lots of colours.

Sevilla 3/3

Alcazar’s garden

• The inside of the palace is open toward the sky, with a lot of fountains, canals and ponds. We could see that the top of the door carvings looked like stalactites.

Sevilla 2/3Alcazar’s palace

Cordoba

• Cordoba's mosque occupies an extensive surface. It mixes Moslem and Christian artistic styles. When we visited it, it was being restored.

Cordoba,once Bagdad’s rival 1/3Cordoba’s Cathedral or mosque

• In this monument, we could see nearly one thousand columns supporting the edifice. Of course, we didn't count all of them!

Cordoba 2/3

Column as far the eye can reach

• The cupola is very imposing, which amplifies the beauty of the Moorish artistic elements. When we visited the mosque, we couldn't see the cupola because of restoration works.

Cordoba 3/3The cathedral’s cupola

Granada

• The palace of the Alhambra is the emblem of Granada. It is composed of the Nazaries'palace, the Alcazaba, el Generalife and Charles the fifth's palace. On this picture we can see Charles the fifth's palace and Nazaries'palace.

Granada, one of the most beautiful towns 1/3

El Alhambra, Arabian palace

• El Generalife is separated from the rest of the Alhambra. It is composed of buildings, gardens, fountains. Maybe Arabian princes used to go to this part of the Alhambra so as to dream or think.

Granada 2/3

El Generalife, one part of el Alhambra

• This photo shows us the Arab ingenuity to create impressive fountains in a place located on the top of a mountain characterized by a lack of water !

Granada 3/3Generalife’s fountains

• I think this trip has been very instructive about the meeting between different cultures. If I go back to Andalusia, I will visit the same monuments again and other monuments as well.