Fabulous Arab habitants

The first weekend of spring I went to Ronda an splendid southern city in Andalusia with a strange but intelligent structure of construction; in fact strange is subject expression of what we can not imagine based on our knowledge and my expression at first look to this city was:
"I am going to fall down the valley, why they chose to live here"
When began to explore the city walking through the narrow alleys and watching the marvelous view of farms down the valley and the houses on top of the rocks and the giant bridge that connect the habitats with exterior you go for the reason and that can not be except the logic of survival so you should  better study history of Spanish conquest and Arab survival decision.

The fantastic fact is that now Spanish is living in the same houses conserving the structures since they function very well and they are adapted the best way to the present context of European living style. The Muslim, is used to have an interior life and Arab housing is based of this ideology; they kept inside perfectly and made it all a paradise with extremely colorful gardens and orange trees and all facilities of an entire life.

An interior courtyard of  Arab house

Now the archeologic site "Casa de Gigante"  

Watching the structure of a house while the enthusiast and  prepared guide was telling the story of the Arab family who gathered in the patio in the summer wing and warmed by the natural and sustainable system of air in the winter part I was remembering the Persian cities I had the fortune to visit before my long departure for new explorations; the houses with some similarities to Arab ones plus the Persian art- works every where as an inevitable part of life and what makes the particular distinction between two cultures. The Persian Garden-Houses I visited in Kashan, Isfahan Yazd and Shiraz and others had also two habitant areas adapted for winter and for summer with a blue pool between with trees all surrounded and a underground for storage of food;  In Yazd even they had digged the ground to have water streams at house such a perfect paradise that they rarely needed to connect outside; I remember that I had the chance to play in my childhood at my grandmother's house at Ray, one of the Ex-Iranian's Capital which now for a different history doesn't exist any more.

Passing the Arc of Ronda to enter the city there was the famous Arab Bathroom for washing the journey dust of tiredness before settling down into the city. Now it's no more functional but still is the cause of admiration for such an idea and perfect construction on top of the rocks. 

What remained of a functional bathroom

The city with it's labyrinth structure and narrow alleys was so pleasant and the co-habitant of two lives of Muslims of a time not so much far in the history and the actual what is the fruit of christianism of Catholics Kings of Spain.

The nice co-habitant of two cultures 

Narrow alleys, Arab houses & Christian construction

Now it's just a pretty town under the sun- spite it was a rainy day and all our perception of the sun was of the photos we saw of our friends trip in a sunny- day with a gorgeous panorama with peaceful area of vivienda and specially this day a happy touring of different athletics who were doing their kind of competition asking direction from passengers through the circled alleys to an unknown end; some with bicycles, some running and others  practicing jogging and I wondered how it was possible for all these groups to manage and basically what a particular marathon it was in this hilly town!