Iraq

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Entry posted by korver · September 7, 2020

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Our journey through the Middle East continues on today as we take a trip to Jordan's northeastern neighbor - Iraq. The Republic of Iraq is a nearly landlocked country of 39 million people that's traversed by the great Tigris and Euphrates rivers, whose valley was the site of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia. This region has a long history - since ancient times it was conquered by Arabia in the 7th century and in 1534 formed part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1920 it became a British mandate, became independent in 1932, and finally a republic in 1958. In more recent years, the country has been involved in conflicts such as the Gulf War (1990) and the US Invasion of Iraq (2003). Iraq's economy is dominated by oil production, and since reserves were first found in the 1920s, the country has come to produce nearly 15% of the world's output. In today's update, we'll be exploring some of the country's most notable and unique sights, from the past and present.

Our trip to Iraq begins with a trip way back in time, to the days of Ancient Sumer. Sumer is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia, emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. The Sumerians were responsible for many of the most important innovations, inventions, and concepts taken for granted in the present day. They essentially “invented” time by dividing day and night into 12-hour periods, hours into 60 minutes, and minutes into 60 seconds. Their other innovations and inventions include the first schools, the earliest version of the tale of the Great Flood and other biblical narratives, the oldest heroic epic, governmental bureaucracy, monumental architecture, and irrigation techniques. Sumer was never a cohesive political entity, however, but a region of city-states each with its own king - and in the center of each town they built was the Ziggurat. The ancient Sumerians believed their gods lived in the sky, and in order for the gods to hear better, you needed to get closer to them - and these large temples provided the perfect structure to rise up to the realm of the gods.

A look at the same area in modern day Iraq - not much besides the crumbling ruins of the Great Ziggurat of Ur remains in this barren desert landscape.

Our next scenes from Mesopotamia come from Ancient Babylon - the capital city of Babylonia, another one of the region's great ancient kingdoms between the 18th and 6th centuries BCE. Starting as a small port town on the Euphrates River, it grew into one of the largest cities of the ancient world under the rule of Hammurabi. Several centuries later, a new line of kings established a Neo-Babylonian Empire that spanned across the Persian Gulf. During this period, Babylon became a city of beautiful and lavish buildings - and Babylonia as a whole was widely noted for its wealth and prosperity. The kingdom would thrive for centuries until the empire was captured by the Persians, which led to it's eventual downfall.

The crown jewel of Babylon was none other than the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon. These fabled gardens adorned the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and were built by its greatest king Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 605-562 BCE) for his wife Queen Amytis who was homesick for the hilly forests of her homeland. This 300 foot tall pyramid, complete with waterfalls and overflowing plants was quite the sight to see - although to this day, scholars still haven't been able to find the exact location of the gardens.

A look at this same area in modern times - the legendary structures of Babylon are long gone. Today, the only people that live here are the Marsh Arabs that live in reed houses and make a living by fishing the shallow, swampy waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

The Tigris and Euphrates are Iraq's longest and most important rivers - since ancient times, they've turned this bare, desolate terrain into a fertile landscape. Western Asia's longest river system has fallen on hard times however in recent years, with heavy irrigation and hydroelectric schemes along their path causing these great rivers to evaporate and shrink rapidly. The once massive Tigris-Euphrates Delta once covered almost all of the country's southern border with the Persian Gulf - today, its shrunken to to a fraction of it's former size.

An aerial overview of the massive Tigris-Euphrates river system from above.

Since the first field was found in 1923, oil has come to dominate Iraq's economy. The country is home to 12% of the world's proven oil reserves, and has seen significant crude output improvement in recent years since driving out the Islamic State in late 2017. Here we see a scene from the country's largest oil refinery, the massive Baiji Oil Refinery located roughly 130 miles north of Baghdad that produces almost a third of the country's output.

The last stop on our trip is Iraq's sprawling capital city of Baghdad, seen here from above. Known as one of the world's great Muslim cities, Baghdad is located on the Tigris River about 330 miles from the headwaters of the Persian Gulf, and this area has been settled since the days of ancient Mesopotamia. The city was founded in 762 as the capital of the Abbāsid dynasty of caliphs, and for the next 500 years it was the most significant cultural centre of Arab and Islamic civilization. It was conquered by the Mongol leader Hülegü in 1258, after which its importance waned. A provincial capital under the Ottoman Empire, Baghdad regained prominence only when it became the capital of Iraq in 1920; over the next half century, the city grew prodigiously and took on all the characteristics of a modern metropolis. Today, Baghdad is Iraq’s largest city and is one of the most populous urban agglomerations of the Middle East.