Torn between its glorious past and recent bloody history, Iraq is in turmoil. Nevertheless, the country’s attractions include breathtaking mountains, vibrant cities, and numerous archaeological sites, not to mention a warm and hospitable population.
The Imam Ali Mosque, also called the Old Mosque, is the first mosque built in Basra. It was founded around 635 during the era of the second Caliph Umar at Basra’s outskirt right before the city’s conquest. Initially, the building was built from palm canes, but a fire later...
One of our last stops in Iraq, because the immigration refused to extend our 30 days visa, was the principal port of Iraq – Basra. The city is situated on the western bank of the Shaṭṭ Al-ʿArab (the waterway formed by the union of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) at its exit from...
The Mesopotamian marshes, also called the Iraqi marshlands, are one of the most famous wetlands in the world and one of the most beautiful places in Iraq. It’s a huge swamp area located on the floodplains of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, bound by the cities of Basra, Nasiriyah, Amarah...
The police escort brought us to Ur – an important city of ancient southern Mesopotamia, situated about 225 kilometers southeast of the site of Babylon and about 16 kilometers west of the present bed of the Euphrates River. In antiquity, the river ran much closer to the city; the...
Today we drove through the countryside from Najaf to Uruk. The road was not so bad, and many parts were newly paved. There were also fewer checkpoints than usual, so we drove a bit faster than expected. After the visit to Uruk, we stopped at a little village on the banks of the Eufrat...
Sumerian Uruk is an ancient Mesopotamian city located northwest of Ur (Tall Al-Muqayyar) in southeastern Iraq. The site was excavated from 1928 onward by the German Oriental Society and the German Archeological Institute. Uruk was one of the greatest cities of Sumer and was enclosed by...
We spent a night in another holy city, Al-Najaf. It lies on a ridge just west of the Euphrates River, about 160 kilometers south of Baghdad. It is one of Shiʿi Islam’s two major holy cities (the other is Karbalā) and is widely held to be the resting place of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib...
West of Karbala, in the desert, are the ruins of Al-Ukhaidir, a Sasanian-style fortress constructed by the Abbasid caliph As-Saffah’s nephew Isa ibn Musa around 775 AD. It is a large, rectangular fortress with a unique defensive style and represents Abbasid architectural innovation...
We wandered the whole evening around Karbala – Shiite Islam’s principal holy city. It lies 88 kilometers southwest of Baghdad. The city’s religious significance derives from the Battle of Karbala (680 CE), a one-sided contest in which al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, the Shiʿi leader...
Babylon was one of the largest, oldest settlements in Mesopotamia and the Middle East on the Euphrates River. It was the seat of successive powerful empires under such famous rulers as Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar. Babylon was the capital of southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) from the early...