Well, unfortunately I missed the short window to visit the salon rico, so I won't be adding much new to the fray. 

  This is a rather polarizing site, with some ultimately disregarding it, while others give it a passing score.

Now that I've visited I understand why. The site itself is poorly preserved, and as pointed out there are some rather terrible past reconstructions standing in the park.

At the same time however, the site has, I think, a lot of unfulfilled potential.

First thing we have to remember is that the city is from the late 10th century. Its state of conservation is not that bad once you take into account its age.

Second thing, people romanticize moorish architecture. For all its wonderful decoration the architecture itself is rather pedestrian and simple. Almost all buildings in the style are basically reinterpretations of relatively short hypostyle rooms with wooden ceilings. This means they age notoriously bad and make for very boring ruins. So walking through Medina azahara is rather...unimpressive.

The good part about this is that technically the museum has the decoration, it's just mostly sitting in boxes. And the plan (mor on "the plan later) is to reinstate much of it. 

I honestly think that just giving the visitor a rough idea of how the buildings looked in situ (perhaps a visual aid, or well differentiated reconstruction) would improve the experience a lot.

Now the issue is that Medina azahara is moving... Notoriously slow. The salon rico has been closed for 16 years because of restoration works. In fact the city is an ongoing construction site, there's rubble everywhere and a frightening amount of cement. What there's not is much people working...

Just so you get the idea of how slow things are moving, they still have signs telling you to wear a face mask. Plus a shit ton of plaques bolted to the soil telling you to respect the safety distance. 

As already pointed out something here is missing. The site obviously needs more money, but the visit is still free for EU citizens.

To further my dismay I learned that about 85% of the archaelogycal site is privately owned... And used as pasture.

Though it's not a big deal taking into account, that much of the site is barely visitable right now. The mosque and the house of the pond, you can only see from afar; the salon rico is infamously closed, the gardens are out of bounds, the fricking calif's house you can barely even see it from afar!!; the baths are closed for restoration, etc.

 Forget the famous 90% that hasn't been excavated, you can barely even see the excavated remains. I found the experience profoundly frustrating, especially because they'd even show pictures in the publicity video that you can't see in your visit.

So all in all the experience right now is pretty poor, but it could be SO MUCH BETTER. I just hope it gets the attention it deserves.

 Because if one thing is undeniable is that the site is precious. Medina azahara gives us a snapshot of the caliphate of cordoba at the height of its power. Furthermore it a detailed view on western Islamic urbanism at the time, which is a big deal because it became a rather common trend later on. And heck it's the 10th century in Europe! It might well be the best example of urbanism in the continent from that time. It also had a profound effect on taifa art and hence on moorish architecture as a whole. 

All in all, I would recommend. Spend a good period on the museum and don't expect much of the site (yet) . It gets a 2.5 from me until they get their shit together.

I think this is one of those visits which benefits a lot from a tour guide. I eavesdropped a few interesting points from other guided groups.