Al Andalus is a unique historical period of medieval Europe. But also a mythical territory full of unsolved enigmas. One of the most indecipherable is the whereabouts of the legendary city of Almanzor. A formidable palatine conglomerate erected by the last great Andalusian ruler at the beginning of the second millennium and disappeared from the face of the earth as if by magic.

Only written testimonies remain of Medina Azahira (The Shining City). Arab sources describe it as a sumptuous city, built in noble materials, which for a short period of time became the political, religious and administrative epicenter of the still powerful capital of Al Andalus. What happened in the year 1009 is an absolute mystery. We only know that the city of Almanzor was reduced to rubble, of which only a marble basin remains. marble basin discovered in Seville and today exhibited to the public in the National Archaeological Museum.

For a thousand years, the city of Almanzor, also identified asMadinat Al Zahira, has been an unknown. The hypotheses of archaeologists and historians have circulated throughout scientific articles of all kinds. Its location has become one of the most fascinating equations of peninsular history. The conjectures have been pouring in like April rain. Up to 21 different enclaves have been considered since the 18th century for the palace complex, according to a study of the study published by Juan Quiles at the end of 2021. And to this day not a single stone of The Shining City has appeared.

But let’s go back to the beginning. And let’s try to unravel some of the keys to understanding the importance of the enigma. First of all: who was Almanzor? Abu Amir Muhammad Ben Abi, known as Al Mansur, meaning The Victorious, was born in Medinaceli in 939. He soon migrated to Cordoba, the great capital of the Caliphate, and managed to climb the ranks of the Umayyad administration to positions of prominence. For years he worked in the shadow of the caliph Al Hakam II and upon his death became the strongman of the regime and chamberlain of the legitimate descendant, Hisham, to guard his minority.

Under his rule, Al Andalus expanded its peninsular borders and strengthened its military prestige. The sources attribute to him political and religious ambitions that openly clashed with the limitations of his own lineage. Almanzor did not belong to the Umayyad family and, therefore, could not be caliph. In this context, he ordered the construction of Medina Azahira as a counterweight to Medina Azahara, the palatine city founded by Abderraman III. The objective seems clear: to create its own symbol of power to rival the Umayyad residence and make its already undisputed authority visible.

The city of Almanzor began its construction in 978. The military man built a “luxurious fortress of extraordinary splendor”, as described by the distinguished architect-restorer Leopoldo Torres Balbásin an article published in 1956. The new palatine and administrative conglomerate is ornamented with “marble fountains and luxuriant clumps of odoriferous plants”, according to the refined expression of Torres Balbas, the great curator of the Alhambra. Almanzor spared no effort in founding a new center of power to match his ambition.

“He gave himself airs of sovereign” and “tried to concentrate the court around him to isolate the nominal caliph Hisham II,” argues Torres Balbas in his historical analysis of Medina Azahira. The new pole of power promoted by Almanzor attracted dozens of mansions of the nobility that settled around it. There was no doubt: the most powerful man in Al Andalus had in mind to found his own dynasty apart from the Umayyads.

Tensions within the court soon surfaced and the Caliphate Cordoba entered a drift of political instability, which accelerated with the death of Almanzor in 1002. Neither his son Abd Al Malik Al Muzaffar, first, nor Abderramán Sanchuelo, later, managed to straighten the course of a state already headed for disintegration.

In the year 1009, a revolt instigated by the great-grandson of Abderraman III overthrows Sanchuelo and annihilates the great symbol of the Amiri family of Almanzor. Torres Balbas describes a “devastating” looting of Medina Azahira, which razed everything to the ground. “Even the doors and timbers were torn off,” says the prestigious architect-conservator. The data provided by Balbas on the lavishness of the palace complex are surprising: 1.7 million pieces of gold and 2.1 million pieces of silver. The assailants ordered “to raze and burn the city to the ground, leaving no stone unturned”.

The two great palace works of the Umayyad caliphate were ruthlessly dismantled. Its ornaments were plundered and a good part of the columns and capitals that supported such an exalted construction ended up scattered around the world. Of the city of Almanzor, however, “not even the memory of its location remained,” emphasizes the famous architect.

And so it has been. Since then, Medina Azahira has been trapped in a spiral of archaeological conjectures and conjectures that have extended for more than 250 years. The Arabist Francisco Javier Simonet proposed its location in the “eras de la Salud”, to the west of Cordoba. Ramírez de Arellano, on the other hand, placed it between the Ermita de la Fuensanta and the Cuesta de la Pólvora, today one of the most popular neighborhoods of the city. The historian Antonio Arjona also ventured a geographical point in the east of Cordoba: the industrial area of Las Quemadas. Even the municipal archaeologist, Juan F. Murillo, proposes one of the meanders of the Guadalquivir as the foundational site of the old city of Almanzor.

Speculation has been rife. Until 2023, when the archaeologist and professor of the University of Cordoba Antonio Monterroso came forward publicly with a 15-page report and abundant graphic material that allegedly accredited conclusive material evidence about the location of Medina Azahira. Monterroso’s team used advanced aerial laser survey techniques to scan a large area of Cordoba. And he located a huge site of more than 40 hectares in an undisclosed location east of Cordoba, near Alcolea.

Monterroso is convinced that we are, at last, before the enigma of Almanzor. The graphic identifies in the subsoil the foundations of an extensive structure that is almost a thousand meters long. It is a plot located in a rustic property at the foot of Sierra Morena, whose coordinates are kept secret to avoid possible looting and inconvenience to the owner. The technical report has been in the hands of the Regional Ministry of Culture since 2023, which has so far made no decision on the matter.

Monterroso and his team have been working with non-invasive laser techniques to comb archaeological sites for years. All of Spain is mapped by the National Geographic Institute and the files are available to the public on its website. In order to treat them correctly, they must be subjected to complex decoding work by qualified experts. Thanks to this innovative technique, Monterroso has been able to identify more than 200 archaeological remains in the north of Córdoba alone without having to lift a stone from the ground.

The finding of the Cordoba University archaeologist opened unprecedented expectations. Two years have passed and the competent public administrations have not initiated any proceedings to verify the evidence that Monterroso has put on the table. In September 2025, the specialist will expand on his research in a new scientific publication. Are we any closer to solving the great enigma of Al Andalus? We will know soon.