20th century threatens a medieval Muslim jewel

MEDINA AZAHARA, SPAIN - To hear historians tell it, this buried city three miles west of Cordoba was the Versailles of the Middle Ages, a collection of estates and palaces teeming with treasures that dazzled the most jaded traveler.

"Travelers from distant lands, men of all ranks and professions in life, following various religions, princes, ambassadors, merchants, pilgrims, theologians, and poets all agreed that they had never seen in the course of their travels anything that could be compared to it," wrote the 19th-century historian Stanley Lane-Poole in his book The Story of the Moors in Spain .

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3328102