Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
reconquest (R
ECONQUISTA
) in the 13th
century. Impressed by the sheer vastness
of its principal mosque, Christian rulers
spared it and encapsulated a cathedral
within its huge structure. French looters
were less respectful of the city's dignity
during the P
ENINSULAR
W
AR
. In more
recent days, though trade and manufac-
turing have reestablished a population
that approaches that of its heyday (some
400,000), modern Córdoba lives in the
shadow of its past glories.
Coronado, Francisco Vázquez de
(1510-1552)
Spanish explorer and soldier
A protégé of the viceroy of N
EW
S
PAIN
,
whom he had accompanied to the New
World, Coronado was appointed governor
of N
EW
G
RANADA
, in northwestern M
EXICO
,
in 1539. Shortly thereafter a probe led by a
monk, Fray Marcos de Niza, was sent into
the wilderness to the north to investigate
reports that had been given by C
ABEZA
DE
V
ACA
of rich Indian towns. Fray Marcos
returned saying that he had been within
sight of a vast city, merely one of the “Seven
Cities of Cíbola” inhabited by highly civi-
lized Indians. Dreaming of conquests on the
grand scale of C
ORTÉS
's and P
IZARRO
's, the
Spanish authorities organized an expedi-
tion by land and sea under the overall com-
mand of Coronado. His ship sailed up the
Gulf of California, discovered the mouth of
the Colorado River, and followed its course
in small boats as far as the southern end of
the Grand Canyon. Meanwhile, a detach-
ment from Coronado's main force had trav-
eled westward through the desert to reach
the rim of the canyon farther up its length.
Some of the soldiers made a partial descent
The Mezquita mosque and cathedral, in Córdoba
(Getty)
overwhelmed by it). Capital of Hispania
under the Roman Empire, the city became
the greatest achievement of the Arab
empire after its conquest of Iberia. The seat
of the Caliphate of the West, Córdoba was
a center of the learned arts and sciences
during the 10th century, compared by
many to ancient Athens. The leading
scholars of medieval Islam and Judaism
taught and wrote there, amid a splendid
array of shrines and palaces. As the Moors
sank into civil strife, Córdoba lost its domi-
nance and succumbed to the Christian
Search WWH ::
Custom Search