Arab Walls

Madrid, Spain, Spain

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The Arab Walls of Madrid, also called the Muslim Walls, form the oldest surviving fortifications in the city, built in the 9th century during Umayyad rule under Emir Muhammad I between 860 and 880 AD to protect the citadel of Mayrit on a strategic promontory by the Manzanares River.

Stretching about 980 meters around roughly 4 hectares with robust masonry, towers like the Tower of Bones near an ancient Muslim cemetery, and an eastern moat, they safeguarded this frontier outpost amid Christian threats, later reinforced by Caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III after 932 attacks.

These remnants, declared an Artistic-Historic Monument in 1954 and visible in Parque de Emir Mohamed I near the Royal Palace site, reveal Madrid's origins as a modest Moorish settlement before the 1085 Christian conquest expanded them.