Artist’s reconstruction of Madinat al-Zahra, a palace city built in the 10th century near Córdoba, Spain
The location of Madinat al-Zāhira, a 10th-century fortress associated with the reign of the Muslim military warlord Almançor, an outpost long lost to history, may have finally been discovered.
After centuries of uncertainty, the announcement comes based on data obtained by LiDAR by the researcher Antonio Monterroso Checaassociate professor of Archeology at the University of Córdoba, in Andalusia, Spain: a Lost City of Almançor was finally found.
The remarkable discovery, if confirmed, could put an end to a decades-long debate over the location of the legendary city, a mythical fortification known as Madinat al-Zāhira.
The LiDAR data underpinning Monterroso Checa’s research was made available by Spain’s National Geographic Institute, and the discovery was featured in a published in the journal Meridies: History and Heritage Studies of the Middle Ages.
Discovering the lost Madinat al-Zāhira
Over the years, theories about the location of Madinat al-Zāhira have led to more than twenty zones where scholars believed the city could have existed.
These theories, fueled largely by the fascination with the legendary “lost city” as symbol of the history and topography of the regionpersisted despite the absence of any archaeological evidence to support them.
“A widespread opinion, devoid of any empirical proofargues that the city of Almançor must be located right next to Córdoba, on its eastern border”, writes Monterroso Checa in his study.
“Until now, documentation has been scarce, confusing, biased and interpreted through a topographical exegesis based on literary sources that, although useful as easily accessible evocations, were not designed for this purpose”, he adds.
Based on information that first came to light in 2023, it was believed that the city could have been in eastern Córdoba, approximately 12 kilometers from the city’s Mosque-Cathedral, near Alcolea, notes the .
Now incorporating LiDAR data, Monterroso Checa claims that it allowed him confirm the suspicion long been discussed about the location of Madinat al-Zāhira, in addition to expanding the area that the 10th-century city would have occupied, to a surface area of 120 hectares — which comes considerably closer to what would be expected based on the historical information available about Madinat al-Zāhira.
Monterroso Checa, A. / Meridies
Images depicting terrain near Córdoba, where LiDAR has revealed anomalies believed to be associated with Madinat al-Zāhira, the lost city of Almançor
The location suspected to be the original site of Madinat al-Zāhira, according to Monterroso Checa, is associated with the Pendolillas hillsan area known through historical records dating back to the 15th century.
Monterroso Checa had already been using LiDAR, an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging, to reveal hidden elements of the archeology of the region. In 2019, his important work with LiDAR in the digital recreation of the geomorphology of Córdoba and the surrounding area was highlighted.
Continuing this previous work, through the use of digital elevation models derived from open access LiDAR data made available by the Spanish National Geographic Institute (IGN), Monterroso Checa built models that incorporated historical analysis and other information coming from studies on Madinat al-Zāhira.
Now, in conjunction with the location of hundreds of other archaeological sites in the province of Córdoba, the researcher believes that the location of Madinat al-Zāhira was finally discovered.
In a more in-depth analysis of the region, the LiDAR data revealed what Monterroso Checa characterizes as “a series of anomalies” visible on the surrounding terrain.
Monterroso Checa concluded that these unusual characteristics “are produced by the existence, underground and at elevation, of a huge archaeological site which, due to its characteristics, should correspond to the lost city of Almançor“.
The anomalies identified in the LiDAR data indicate the likely presence of several large structuresincluding a terraced layout and elements with traces of a floor plan, which suggests that this location is perhaps the most solid candidate to date for the legendary “lost city”.
“We rely on the only valid evidence and validated as possible”, writes Monterroso Checa in his recent study, adding that “the physical anomalies identified by the millions of data points” all converge on the location of breeding farms for breed horses known since the Low Middle Ages.
“We propose as a hypothesis that the remains located there may correspond to the city of Almançor”, concludes Monterroso Checa.
