The Mezquita mosque, Cordoba

If I made a list of the wonders of the modern world this Mezquita mosque would be on it. The prelude to the amazing building itself was the courtyard of orange trees, bright with ripe fruit and fragrant with blossom, punctuated by fountains and cypress trees.

Inside, hundreds of columns and arches replicated the trees.

This manmade orange grove was so large, extended three times by various caliphs, that one lost one's sense of direction until, suddenly one broke through into a much taller chamber.

Later, Christian, monarchs had plonked a soaring, rumbustious Gothic cathedral down literally in the centre of this massive mosque, flying buttresses crashing down into the sacred space.

From within the mosque, however, the cathedral was a well kept secret until one actually entered it. Yet later, when we climbed the bell tower and looked out, its extra height made it the most obvious feature of the place.

Again and again we looked back at the magic trick of a cathedral within a mosque  - simultaneously both concealed and yet standing out. 

Probably it is a metaphor for something, but I have no idea what.