page_title: Córdoba, Spain
section_title: Location
hierarchical_section_title: Córdoba, Spain / Geography / Location
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Vue de Cordoue, Andalousie - Espagne
context_page_description: Córdoba, also spelled Cordova in English, is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. It is the largest city in the province, 3rd largest in Andalusia, after Sevilla and Málaga, and the 12th largest in Spain. It was a Roman settlement, taken over by the Visigoths, followed by the Muslim conquests in the eighth century and later becoming the capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba. The city served as the capital in exile of the Umayyad Caliphate and various other emirates. During these Muslim periods, Córdoba was transformed into a world leading center of education and learning, producing notable figures such as Averroes, Ibn Hazm, and Al-Zahrawi, and by the 10th century it had grown to be the second-largest city in Europe. It was conquered by the Kingdom of Castile through the Christian Reconquista in 1236.
  Today, Córdoba is still home to many notable pieces of Moorish architecture such as The Mezquita-Catedral, which was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 and is now a cathedral. The UNESCO status has since been expanded to encompass the whole historic centre of Córdoba.
context_section_description: Córdoba is located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in the depression formed by the Guadalquivir river, that cuts across the city in a east-north east to west-south west direction. The wider municipality extends across an area of 1,254.25 km², making it the largest municipality in Andalusia and the fourth largest in Spain.
  The city of Córdoba lies in the middle course of the river. Three major landscape units in the municipality include the Sierra (as in the southern reaches of Sierra Morena), the Valley proper and the Campiña.
  The differences in elevation in the Valley are very small, ranging from 100 and 170 metres above sea level, with the city proper located at an average altitude of roughly 125 metres above sea level. The landscape of the valley is further subdivided in the piedmont connecting with the Sierra, the fluvial terraces and the most immediate vicinity of the river course. 
  The Miocene Campiña, located in the southern bank of the Guadalquivir, features a hilly landscape gently increasing in height up to about 200 m. In the Sierra, to the north of the city, the altitude increases relatively abruptly up to 500 meters. Both the Sierra and the Campiña display viewpoints over the valley.
caption: View of Córdoba from the Sierra foothills.
exif: {"Image Make": "LEICA", "Image Model": "D-LUX 3", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint.NET v3.08", "Image DateTime": "2008:04:22 16:47:21", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "594", "Image CustomRendered": "Custom", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "Image FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "112", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image GainControl": "None", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Hard", "Image ImageUniqueID": "59162399002d342e9fe20342464e29cc", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7792", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4439", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:04:22 16:47:21", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:04:22 16:47:21", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "126/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2376", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4224", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}