Córdoba

Around 1000 years ago, Córdoba was -- in what is now southern Spain --one of the most populated cities in the world. It was a diverse place, a tolerant learning center, at the time home to the largest functioning library in the world. It was a main focal point of Al-Andalus, the land of the Iberian Moors, center of the Caliphate of Córdoba. Jews, Christians and different Muslim sects lived in fair tolerance and abundance. 

Obviously, harmony was subject to change. Relatively few even remember or know of such sparkling diversity now. But while its tolerant era lasted, it must have been truly something. 

Even now we can see spectacular architectural gifts bequeathed down the centuries -- the great mosque, modified into a Catholic cathedral (the mosque itself had been modified and greatly expanded from earlier Christian church grounds). The great Roman bridge remains, too. Can you dig?

Today's Rune: Joy.