I wasn’t a fan of World History in high school.  It bored me out of my mind, in fact.  I memorized the dates and got the heck out of there as fast as I could.

It’s a bit ironic, then, that I find real-life history so fascinating.  On our recent trip to Spain, visiting the Mezquita in Cordoba was one of my favorite tourist stops.  Here are the cliff notes:

Once upon a time, there was a Roman pagan temple which was torn down and replaced by a Visogothic Christian church (St. Vincent).  

People worship there for a time until the Moors conquered the town and subsequently tore down the church and over the next two centuries built a beautiful mosque in its place.  

Years later, the Christians came back through and were once again top dog in Cordoba.  The mosque was so beautiful, though, that instead of tearing it down, they simply constructed a Cathedral right in the middle of it! Today, it’s still a Cathedral and we were there on a day when a worship service was about to commence.  Very cool.

Who doesn’t like history like that?

Here are the beautiful arches in the mosque: