2-370-491 - Samuel Magal/Sites & Photos/Heritage Images

The Arab fortress (alcazaba) at Merida, Spain, 2007. This Moorish castle was created in 855 by the enlargement of an earlier Roman and Visigothic building, which was later converted by the Order of Santiago into a monastery. The Moors restored the Roman cistern in the basement of the fortress and built a flight of steps down to it, re-using Roman and Visigothic stones. Merida was founded by the Romans in 25 BC, under the name of Augusta Emerita, as a colony for veterans of the Vth and Xth Legions.