Sintra Valley l Portugal I Moorish Castle l Vlog l Urdu & Hindi

Assalam Alaikum ! (Peace be with you) Welcome to Travel Diaries (Safar Nama).
Today, we reached Sintra Valley - A town and municipality in the Greater #Lisbon region of #Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. #Sintra is a major tourist destination in Portugal, famed for its picturesqueness and for its numerous historic palaces and castles. Interestingly, It is also one of the wealthiest municipalities in the country because of its 19th-century Romanticist architecture, historic estates & villas, gardens, and numerous royal palaces & castles, which resulted in the classification of the town and its historic passage as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835 in an area of 319.23 square kilometers (123.26 sq. mi).
Moorish Castle
Due to shortage of time, I had to choose among Pena National Palace, The National Palace of Portugal and Moorish Castle. I choose Moorish #Castle due to my love with history. Another reason might be is an attempt to know what capabilities Muslims possess back in their hay days which are nowhere to be found now a days. Now, I silence my philosopher and let’s talk about the castle. The castle was built in 8th or 9th century by #Moorish. Moorish are people of Morocco and North Africa. It is nothing but an ill planned military check post to be very precise. It stretched from south west to North west and on top of the hill. Keeping military needs at center, double walls structure with passage made of granite in between. Strategic location of the castle made it pivotal point in all military campaigns of #Al-Andulus back in the days.
The subterranean cistern, accessible from a three-meter accessway, is 18 meters long by 6 meters wide, and 6 meters in height, where water was collected from openings on its "roof". The interior walls are punctuated by five rectangular towers and one circular tower. A small door, normally covered in underbrush, opens to the northern façade of the castle, corresponding to the Traitors Gate. In the southwest corner is the highest tower, known as the royal tower. There are few food and wheat storage areas in middle of castle, few are still visible, and others are lost in time.
Brief History
In 1031, after the loss of #Córdoba to the Almoravid dynasty, the king of Badajoz opted to transfer to Alfonso VI of León and Castile a few territories on the Iberian peninsula (among them Sintra) in order to gain an alliance with the Christian king. This transfer did not result in any security, and the castle was lost to the invading Almoravid. After the conquest of Lisbon (1147) by forces loyal to Afonso Henriques, the castle surrendered voluntarily to Christian forces. During the second half of the 12th century, the chapel constructed within the walls of the castle. In 1375 King Ferdinand I of Portugal, under the counsel of João Annes de Almada, ordered the rebuilding of the castle. While the structure was well fortified by 1383, its military importance was progressively diminishing as, more and more, the inhabitants were abandoning the castle for the old village of Sintra. While the chapel was still being used a center of religious activities at the beginning of the 15th century, and the castle was completely abandoned. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake caused considerable damage to the chapel and affected the stability of the castle.
In 1975 archaeological excavations in the Chapel of São Pedro were begun by the cultural services of Portugal, which discovered the existence of medieval funerary tombs, dating to the turn of the 13th century. A dispatch by the Ministry of Culture, on 26 June 1996, declared the area of the Castle as a zone of special interest and will be taken care by ministry of culture.
I hope you will get some feel through this video what I am talking about! Enjoy!!!



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