Monday 23 September 2013

Ronda - La Casa del Rey Moro



'La Casa del Rey Moro' - allegedly the house of a Moorish King - hence its name. However, the current building is an 18th century palace with beautiful gardens designed by Forestier, the famous French garden designer. Perhaps the palace has been built on the site of a former building because, according to legend, this place was the residence of King Al-Mutadid who allegedly drank his wine from the skulls of his enemies.


Inside there are steps down to the foot of the gorge. Now these are Arabic. The 14th century Mina stairs was built by the Moors to prevent water blockades in times of war. The steps were sculpted out of the rock and, according to various guidebooks, there are meant to be 365 of them. Well, on my visit, I counted only 299! That was enough! Returning to the top quite exhausted, it was with relief that I rested - in the delightful gardens of the mansion.





Robert Bovington
https://plus.google.com/118235640981670233395/posts

more blogs by Robert Bovington...
"Photographs of Spain"
"postcards from Spain"
"you couldn't make it up!"
"a grumpy old man in Spain"
"bits and bobs"
"Spanish Expressions"
"Spanish Art"
"Books About Spain"

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