Museum Palacio de la Aljafería in Zaragoza

You're standing at the Aljafería in Zaragoza. Behind these sturdy walls hides a palace, built in the second half of the eleventh century for the Banu Hud, the dynasty that ruled the Islamic kingdom of Zaragoza. Emir al-Muqtadir himself called it the Palace of Joy. It's the only large building left from the age of the taifas, the small independent Islamic kingdoms of Spain. Together with the mosque of Córdoba and the Alhambra, it ranks among the three finest examples of Moorish architecture in Spain.