El arco del Pópulo. En torno al Cádiz musulmán

The old enclosed precint of Cádiz, known as the Pópulo, was formed by a curtain wall flanked by towers with a gate in the centre of each face. It was dominated by the ruins of the Roman theatre, discovered in 1980, which occupied a third of the total surface area of the enclosure. The gate in the North wall, presently known as the Arch of Pópulo, has a pointed arch with prominent keystone and is of Arab origin. It was probably built in the 12th century for the Governor Abū l-Ḥasan who embraced the Almohad cause. This gate and the walls of the city were restored during the reing of Alfonso X. Within the Pópulo, there was a mosque oriented toward the South-East, the site of which is occupied by the church of Santa Cruz, also known as the Catedral Vieja. It is probable that in the Pópulo, there was a ribāṭ, or fortified barracks for volunteers for the jihād In the centre of the island of Cádiz, there was a famous Roman tower of lighthouse of two storeys which was described by al-Zuhrī in the 12th century. The tower was similar in appearance to the Faro of Alexandria and would have been the model for the minarets of occidental mosques.El antiguo recinto de Cádiz, conocido por el Pópulo, tenía muralla con torres y una puerta en cada uno de sus lados; era presidido por las ruinas del teatro romano que ocupa un tercio de la total extensión superficial del habitat; se cree que en el Pópulo y sus arrabales estaba la ciudad romana. Una de las puertas, hoy llamado Arco del Pópulo, tiene arco apuntado, enjarjado y con la dovela clave destacada en altura de factura árabe erigido probablemente en el siglo XII cuando era gobernador de la plaza Abū l-Ḥasan, que abrazó la causa almohade. Esta puerta y las murallas fueron restauradas en el reinado de Al-fonso X. El Pópulo encerraba una mezquita orientada a SE, suplantada por la actual iglesia de Santa Cruz o Catedral Vieja. Es probable que el Pópulo fuera un ribāṭ o lugar de concentración de guerreros de la Guerra Santa. En el centro de la isla de Cádiz estaría el célebre ídolo o almenara —faro antiguo— descrito por los cronistas árabes. La torre tiene aspecto semejante al Faro de Alejandría y sería modelo de los alminares de mezquitas occidentales