Another ancient city has been short-listed for the UNESCO World Heritage List. Medina Azahara, the de-facto capital of Al-Andalus -- an Arab-Muslim territory which occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula and parts of today's Morocco -- was one of the economic and cultural centers of the Mediterranean region. However, the ruined city was abandoned in the 10th century, just decades after its foundation. Qi Jie has more details.

Built on the outskirts of Cordoba in southern Spain, the caliphal city of Medina Azahara was sometimes known as the "Versailles of the Middle Ages".  

The diretor of the archaeological site Medina Azahara explained more about the founding of the city. 

ALBERTO MONTEJO DIRECTOR OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE MEDINA AZAHARA "Cordoba was a very big city for the standards of the time. What Abd ar-Rahman III did was move his power base out of the city and create a new capital to display his power. We could perhaps compare it to Brasilia in Brazil, where the capital status was taken away from Rio do Janeiro."

But it was a brief splendour. Founded between the year 936 and 940, it was sacked and abandoned eight decades later during a civil war.

Today, Medina Azahara still has many secrets to yield, but, most importantly, they can be easily accessed.

ALBERTO MONTEJO DIRECTOR OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE MEDINA AZAHARA "There are other caliphal cities, such as Baghdad – which is irrecoverable, or Cairo, which now has a population of 20 million. But the thing about Medina Azahara is the there's nothing on it. It was abandoned and nothing was ever built on top." 

The terraces, city walls, the Royal Castle and the Mosque, a 3D recreation takes people back more than one thousand years ago to the city of Cordoba. 

JIMMY EAGLE VISITOR FROM ARIZONA, US "In Spain we wanted to visit the three Southern cities because of the Moorish influence in the architecture and the culture. And this is the third of the three cities. And Medina had always come up in the literature, so we had to come see it and I'm so glad we did. It is very interesting, it is beautiful."

Other sites in Spain of Islamic heritage that have already been recognized by UNESCO include the La Alhambra palace in Granada and Cordoba's Mosque. 

Muslim rulers controlled parts of today's Spain between 711 and 1492, before the Catholic Kings conquered the last remaining Islamic kingdom of the Iberian Peninsula in Granada.

ISABEL AMBROSIO MAYOR OF CORDOBA "Cordoba has historically been melting pot of many civilizations. We're proud of the achievement that Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together in this city all along the 10th century."

The Medina Azahara may be added to the World Heritage list during UNESCO's ongoing meeting in Bahrain which runs until July 4th. 

QIJIE, CGTN