UNESCO includes Spanish al-Azahra on the World Heritage List

UNESCO has included al-Azahra, an archaeological site from the 10th and 11th centuries near Cordoba in southern Spain, on the World Heritage List, announced the United Nations agency at a session in Bahrain.

This city, whose construction began in 936, is one of the jewels inherited from Al-Andalus, alongside the Alhambra, the Mosque of Cordoba, and the Alcazar in Seville, which are already on the list, when Muslims ruled the Iberian Peninsula from the 7th to the 15th century.

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This ancient Arab city with a palace built by the Emir of Cordoba Abd al-Rahman III in the mid-10th century was later destroyed in wars. The remnants of the city fell into oblivion for almost 1000 years, until the beginning of the 20th century.

The city, which according to legend was named after the caliph’s beloved wife Azahra, is surrounded by walls and is located eight kilometers from Cordoba.

At the session on Sunday, the Chiribiquete National Park in Colombia and the Italian industrial city of Ivrea were also added to the list, UNESCO added.

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Chiribiquete National Park is a habitat for jaguars covering an area of 2.7 million hectares. It is the largest national park in Colombia, possessing one of the greatest biological diversities on the planet. This park is the 9th site in the country to enter the World Heritage List.

Ivrea is the second largest city in the province of Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont, where the Italian company Olivetti, which produces typewriters and mechanical digitals, was founded. The city of Ivrea was designed by leading Italian architects between 1930 and 1960 and reflects the ideas of the communist movement in Italy and a modern vision of industrial production and architecture.