The exterior of the Mezquita in Cordoba, Spain on July 28, 2007. Cordoba is often cited as a historical model of peaceful coexistence among Christians, Jews and Muslims when the city was the capital of Moorish southern Spain and the Umayyad caliphate for nearly 500 years; today Cordoba attracts tourists from around the Middle East and North Africa as well as the West because of the city's shared cultural patrimony.