Seville is the capital and largest city of Andalusia, Spain and is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, the fifth longest river in the Iberian Peninsula and the second longest river with its entire length in Spain. The Guadalquivir River is 657 kilometres long and begins in the Cazorla mountain range, passes through Córdoba and Seville and flows into the Gulf of Cádiz, in the Atlantic Ocean. The River is navigable to Seville, but in Roman times it was navigable to Córdoba but I bet you didn’t know that Seville has a harbour and that it is the only river port in Spain.
The photo is of the Azamara Quest a cruise ship of 30,000 tons docked about a mile from the centre of Seville! I know that the Braemar has docked here once in the past, the then Captain commenting that it was the trickiest unaided passages through locks from the harbour he had ever undertaken and clearly not to be repeated! It does explain however why the Azamara Quest was facing down river – it must have turned in the harbour and come astern through the locks!!
The Old Town of Seville is the third largest in Europe with an area of 4 sq km and contains three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Alcázar Palace complex, the Cathedral and the General Archive of the Indies. The first two were on the itinerary for today.
Seville was founded as the Roman city of Hispalis, and was known as Ishbiliya after the Muslim conquest in 712 so there is a Moorish influence especially in the architecture of the Alcázar Palace. In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan departed from Seville for the first circumnavigation of the Earth but as the Guadalquivir River silted up in the 17th Century Seville declined as a port in favour of he more accessible Cadiz. The 20th century in Seville saw the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 and Expo'92. The Plaza de España, the last visit of the day, was built for the earlier exhibition.
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