I have mixed feelings about the Medina Al-Zahara experience. I mean, it's an AMAZING site - how…read moreoften do you get to see a 10th century city?! My review is more about the curated experience, I suppose. The experience begins with a movie (with subtitles) that does a great job explaining the site and its history, and there's a truly terrific museum next to the auditorium that is well-curated and well-laid out.
But the actual archeological site can be a bit hard to really understand, and it's so far from the museum (you take a green bus to get there) that it can be hard to remember what the spaces you are seeing were actually used for. The placards that are out in the field are pretty dry, and I found myself wishing for interactive displays at the site to bring it to life a bit more, and to explain what the site itself reveals about life in 10th century southern Spain. I could imagine some really cool displays that show where the vessels, jars, and bowls from the museum were actually found. I just wish some of the smart, technologically sophisticated museum displays had made their way to the archeological site. Moreover, I found the constant payments -- for the bus to the site, for entry to the site, for the green bus that takes you from the museum up the hill -- kind of annoying and I wish they had rolled it all into one fee.
It's worth seeing, but hold in mind that it isn't flawless.