At the end of the 10th century Córdoba was the most populous city on earth, with around a million people located in the capital of the Caliphate, from where emirs ruled the Iberian peninsula (Al-Andalus) and parts of North Africa. Strange to think while Harold was taking one in the eye for England and surfs shivered in their mud huts in the barbaric middle ages, here was a civilized and enlightened culture influencing much of the known world.

The Mosque they built here still stands. A massive block in the centre of the city, at its height it could hold 40,000 praying. Not any more of course as when the Catholics took over they converted it into a church, but they kept the basic building so the prayer hall still stands, just as it did 1000 years ago.

What they did do is to rip a big hole in the middle of the mosque and plonk a great cathedral in it. It's quite bizarre to be walking through a dimly lit prayer hall, to turn the corner and suddenly be inside the most tremendous church.