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Córdoba is a city in Andalucía, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. Located at 37.88° North, 4.77° West, on the Guadalquivir river, it was founded in ancient Roman times as Corduba by Claudius Marcellus. Its population is 321,164 as of 2005.

Today a moderately sized modern city, the old town contains many impressive architectural reminders of when Córdoba was the thriving capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba that governed almost all of the Iberian peninsula. It has been estimated that Córdoba, with up to 500,000 inhabitants in the tenth century, was the second largest city in the world after Constantinople.

Córdoba was the birthplace of four famous philosophers: the Roman stoic Seneca, the Muslim Averroes, and the Jewish Maimonides and possibly Abraham Cohen de Herrera. Córdoba was also the birthplace of the Roman poet Lucan, medieval Spanish poet Juan de Mena, and Luis de Góngora, who lived most of his life and wrote his most important works but one in Córdoba. More recently, several flamenco artists including Paco Peña, Vicente Amigo, and Joaquín Cortés were born there as well.