sk a displacedMoorish Caliph where the land of milk and honey is and his eyes would probably swell with tears and facing away hemight gesticulate over the sea muttering“Al-Andalus”. Of course, this is just a romantic assumption, but for the fact that for hundreds of years the province of Andalucia at the foot of the Iberian Peninsula was the jewel of Moorish civilisation, the seat of learning and enlightenment, whilst the rest of Europe languished in the greymist of the Dark Ages. Today, it is a vivacious and varied region that is best known for its promise of year roundwarmweather and sunshine along its lengthy Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts ...and yet in truth it offers so verymuchmore. Andalucia is made up of eight provinces named after their principal cities. This modern sectioning replaced the southern kingdoms of Moorish Al-Andalus, the last to fall to the Christian re-conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. The large region has a varied topography and is one of the most intensive agricultural regions in the whole of Europe. Malagaprovince is best known for its glitzy beach resorts along the Costa del Sol and, although these have their own attractions, the province has much more to offer. Malaga city is a vibrant provincial capital with a fascinating history and an increasingly affluent profile that has witnessed a cosmopolitan renaissance that may well outshine its Marbella neighbours. Granadaprovince is characterised by extreme variables in landscape and climate, to the extent that you can even ski in the mountains in the morning, and then go diving in the sea in the afternoon. When you've explored the magnificent city of Granada, andalucia A The Moors ruled parts of Andalucia from the early 8th until the late 15th centuries. Their legacy, especially in terms of what we can see today, was considerable, with two of the region's most important and most-visited monuments, the Alhambra in Granada and the Mezquita in Cordoba, dating fromMoorish times. In the countryside, the Moors also left behind sophisticated irrigation systems, which are testament to their skilled agriculture, and many pueblos blancos – white-painted hillside villages. Water was viewed as a necessary cooling agent as were the covered cloisters at the centre of their houses and palaces, many of which remain hidden behind thick heat reducing white-washed walls - clever engineering from an enlightened race that time forgot! moorish influences 4
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