English and the World · Spain · 54 · Córdoba · A1–C2 · A1–A2 free
A Roman city on the Guadalquivir, a prince who escaped across the sea, a caliph in a palace of marble, the greatest city in western Europe, and a summer day in 1236. Choose your level.
Corduba
Córdoba is a city on the river Guadalquivir, about 140 kilometres up the river from Seville. The Romans founded it more than two thousand years ago and called it Corduba. It was the capital of a big Roman province, Baetica. The famous writer Seneca lived in Rome, but he was born in Corduba.
The Romans constructed a bridge over the river, and it is still there. They also created temples and roads. Later, the Visigoths ruled the city, and in 711 Muslim armies arrived from North Africa.
756–1236
In 756 a young prince, Abd al-Rahman, escaped from Syria, where his family had lost their power, and travelled to al-Andalus. He started a new state with Córdoba as its capital. In 929 his descendant, Abd al-Rahman III, decided to call himself “caliph”, the leader of all Muslims.
Córdoba became one of the biggest and richest cities in Europe. It had libraries, baths, markets and the great mosque. But after a terrible war, the caliphate ended in 1031. In 1236, King Ferdinand III of Castile conquered the city, and the great mosque became a cathedral.
🦉 Want more? Sophia explains the past simple, regular and irregular, in An Incident with a Shelf (Philo & Sophia, Lesson 2).
Language: the past simple of regular verbs
| Spelling rule | Example | Sound of -ed |
|---|---|---|
| most verbs: + -ed | found → founded, start → started | /ɪd/ after t and d: founded, started |
| verbs ending in -e: + -d | arrive → arrived, decide → decided | /d/ after voiced sounds: arrived, called |
| consonant + -y → -ied | study → studied, carry → carried | /t/ after p, k, s, sh, ch: escaped, watched |
| short verb, one vowel + one consonant: double it | stop → stopped, plan → planned | (British English also doubles l: travelled) |
⚠️ Say escaped with one syllable, /ɪˈskeɪpt/, not ✗ es-ca-ped. Only add a syllable after t and d: start-ed, decid-ed.
Read the texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end.
Choose the best answer.
1. What did the Romans call Córdoba?
2. Which Roman building is still there?
3. Where did the young prince Abd al-Rahman come from?
4. What happened to the great mosque in 1236?
Write the past simple.
5. In 711 Muslim armies from North Africa. (arrive)
6. Many scholars in Córdoba’s libraries. (study)
7. The prince a long way. (travel)
8. The war in 1031, with the end of the caliphate. (stop)
Write the verb in brackets in the past simple.
9. The Romans the city. (found)
10. Abd al-Rahman from Syria. (escape)
11. Abd al-Rahman III to call himself caliph. (decide)
12. Ferdinand III Córdoba in 1236. (conquer)
Go there!
Visit: walk across the Roman bridge in the evening, when the stones are golden. At one end is the great Mosque-Cathedral; at the other, the Calahorra tower, with a small museum about the city of three cultures. Córdoba is about 45 minutes from Seville and under two hours from Madrid by high-speed train.
Your task: write six sentences about the history of your town or city, using regular verbs in the past simple (founded, built… started, changed, moved).
It tells how a Roman provincial capital became the greatest city in western Europe, how a fugitive prince founded a dynasty and his descendant declared himself caliph, what the chroniclers said about its libraries and lamps, how it all fell apart in twenty years of civil war, and how Castile took it on a summer day in 1236, with grammar, practice, etymology and a visit plan.
The A1–A2 version above is free for everyone.
It tells how a Roman provincial capital became the greatest city in western Europe, how a fugitive prince founded a dynasty and his descendant declared himself caliph, what the chroniclers said about its libraries and lamps, how it all fell apart in twenty years of civil war, and how Castile took it on a summer day in 1236, with grammar, practice, etymology and a visit plan.
The A1–A2 version above is free for everyone.