The Iberian Peninsula (where we find Spain and Portugal today) experienced both Muslim and Christian rulers in the last millennium. The interior of the Great Mosque is part of the Moorish landscape in Andalusia, Spain. At first the site of a Christian church, Spanish Muslims built the Great Mosque at Cordoba in the eighth century. The columns, archways, and geometric tiles reflect the aesthetic of Moorish architecture. In the thirteenth century, Ferdinand III the Saint recaptured Cordoba and integrated the city into his Christian empire. As early as the fourteenth century Christian structures began to be built in and around the Great Mosque. In the sixteenth century, 300 years after Cordoba returned to the control of Christian monarchs, a cathedral was erected in the middle of the Great Mosque. . While the story of the Roman Empire and its control of areas in the Mediterranean Basin endures, our popular culture downplays the Southwest Asian and North African empires that controlled portions of Europe. Why do you think that is? What elements of the cultural landscapes in Tunisia and Spain reflect Muslim rule and what elements reflect Christian rule? Search the Internet for photographs of Tunis, Tunisia and, Andalusia, Spain for evidence of similarity in the cultural landscape. Please respond in your post in approx. 250 words. Please be sure to include web links and/or citations to sources (author, title, year are sufficient).