Revision as of 19:37, 10 March 2018

Trip to Granada and the Sierra Nevada (December 2017)

The Umayyad conquest of Hispania established Al-Andalus with Ġarnāṭah (غرناطة) as its capital, later passing to the hands of the Nasrid dynasty, the longest reigning Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula. Its defeat to the Catholic kings made Spain one of the leading powers of the time, proceeding to discover and then conquer (colonize) the new word. This city on the flanks of the Sierra Nevada is one of the points where the fate of civilisations has been decided. It retains to this day a spirit and some atmosphere of its great Moorish heritage, which shaped modern Spain and Spaniards.

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-= <span style="background-color: rgba(54, 25, 25, .5); color: white;">Trip to Granada and the Sierra Nevada (December 2017)</span> =
+= <span style="position:relative;top:-5px;background-color: rgba(228, 188, 118, .75); color: white;z-index:20;">Trip to Granada and the Sierra Nevada (December 2017)</span> =
-<span style="background-color: rgba(54, 25, 25, .5); color: white;">
-The ''Algarve'', from Arabic الغرب‎‎ al-Gharb, "the West", that is, the west of Al-Andalus, is a mythical part of Europe, where the old continent turns into California, with flamboyant red coast crumbling under the weight of the Ocean to form a cathedral of sandy rocks, and where Portugal turns into water. It is a territory so remote from its land that Alfonso III called himself ''King of Portugal and the Algarve'' and that the Portuguese empire was called ''the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves''. Even as of today, it is a place that looks out of its place and out of its time.
-</span>
-</div>
-<div style="position:relative;
-left:-20px;top:-190px;margin-bottom:-190px;z-index:10;">[[File:GranadaMuralDecember2018.jpg|link=|778px]]</div>
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+<wz tip="The Nasrid decorations of the ''Palacio de la Madraza'', among the best preserved in Andalusia, giving an idea of what the Alhambra must have looked like at the time of its Muslim grandeur."><poem>
+<div style="position:relative;top:-10px;z-index:20;text-align:right;"><span style="background-color: rgba(228, 188, 118,.75)!important; color: white;">The Umayyad conquest of Hispania established Al-Andalus with Ġarnāṭah (غرناطة) as its capital, later passing to the hands of the Nasrid dynasty, the longest reigning Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula. Its defeat to the Catholic kings made Spain one of the leading powers of the time, proceeding to discover and then conquer (colonize) the new word. This city on the flanks of the Sierra Nevada is one of the points where the fate of civilisations has been decided. It retains to this day a spirit and some atmosphere of its great Moorish heritage, which shaped modern Spain and Spaniards.</span></div>
-The ''Algarve'' is to [[Portugal]] what [[Andalusia]] is to [[Spain]]. It kept for itself a taste of its previous rulers, that today manifests as a wilderness, and independence, a difference from the rest of the country, that makes it exotic and foreign, while at the same time familiar from its culture, gastronomy, language and everything that defines a country. It is like having Portugal in Africa, or Spain in the Maghreb. The main difference between the two is that the Algarve sits by the Ocean while Andalusia sits by the sea. This makes the former more savage, more tumultuous and more beautiful than its neighbour.
+</poem>
+<div style="position:relative;
+left:-20px;top:-220px;margin-bottom:-170px;z-index:10;">[[File:GranadaMuralDecember2018.jpg|link=|779px]]</div></wz>
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