Alcázar of the Caliphs (Córdoba)

The site was composed of heterogeneous constructions ranging from the private residences of the rulers and their households to the government offices and administrative areas.

[2] When the Visigoths fell to the Muslim conquest of Hispania in 711, marking the beginning of Al-Andalus, the governors appointed by the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus established themselves initially in Seville.

[5] After a failed plot against him in 784, Abd ar-Rahman moved his residence definitively to the site of the palace in the city, which he transformed into the new Alcázar.

[4] Abd ar-Rahman I and his successors (who eventually declared a new Caliphate) built and continuously developed the Alcázar into the official royal residence and seat of power in Al-Andalus.

[4] During this period the city flourished as a key political and cultural center, and the Alcázar was expanded into a very large and widely used area with baths, gardens, and the largest library in Western Europe.

[6][better source needed] Abd ar-Rahman II was responsible for improving the water supply for both the city and the palace gardens.

[10]) The palace complex was also equipped with a bathhouse (hammam), known today as the Caliphal Baths (Baños Califales), which dates from the reign of al-Hakam II and was later expanded under the Almohads (12th to early 13th century).

[11] In the 10th century the official seat of government was moved to a new palace complex, Madinat al-Zahara, built by Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III outside the city.

[12] Madinat al-Zahara was in turn ruined during the collapse of the caliphate in the early 11th century, causing the seat of power in Cordoba to return to the Alcázar, where local governors resided under later regimes.

The palace complex covered a large area situated to the southwest of the Great Mosque, encompassing what is today the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, the Episcopal Palace, the Seminary of San Pelagio, the Campo Santos de los Mártires public square (which now covers the Caliphal Baths), and other nearby buildings.

The first sabbat was built by the Umayyad emir Abdallah (reigned 888-912) for security reasons and was replaced by al-Hakam II when he expanded the mosque.

The gate itself included a balcony or platform (called a saṭḥ) from which Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III could observe the events.