Spain

Columns of the Alhambra


Columns in the Court of the Lion, Alhambra, Granada, Spain.


“Moors Against Christians” slideshow


Slideshow from one of the annual Moros y Cristianos celebration in Spain.


Moros Y Cristianos Celebration in Spain


Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians) is a celebration which is held in different cities along the Spanish coast. This festival acts out a part of Spanish history demonstrating the battles between the Moors and the Christians, that took place in the region centuries ago.

One of the best places to see this fiesta is Alcoy, in Alicante, where the celebrations take place between the 22nd – 24th of April, since the XVI century, where a battle took place in 1276.

The first day, the festivity begins with a parade of two teams of both Moorish and Christian communities: the members of both groups run across the streets of Alcoy representing a battle in luxury armour and majestic clothes.


Abu al-Quasim, Father of Modern Surgery


Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi (936–1013), also known in the West as Abulcasis, was a Moorish physician who lived in Al-Andalus, Spain. He is considered the greatest medieval surgeon to have appeared from the Islamic World, and has been described by some as the father of modern surgery. His greatest contribution to medicine is the Kitab al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume encyclopedia of medical practices. His pioneering contributions to the field of surgical procedures and instruments had an enormous impact in the East and West well into the modern period, where some of his discoveries are still applied in medicine to this day.