day a moderately-sized modern city, the old town contains many impressive architectural reminders of when Qurṭuba (قرطبة), the thriving capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba, governed almost all of the Iberian peninsula. It has been estimated that in the latter half of the tenth century Córdoba, with up to 500,000 inhabitants, was then the most populated city in Europe and, perhaps, in the world.[2]