Els Slots

4.00 The Netherlands - 23-Apr-25 -

This should have been split into two WHS: one for the sites of the Ancient Sumerian civilization, one for the “New” Marshes. ICOMOS and IUCN suggested to do so and saw OUV in both, but inscription was rushed through and now we’re stuck with a messy inscription and an unrecognizable site name. 

I will focus my review on the Marshes and not on the archaeological sites. These Marshes are the so-called “New Marshes”, which originated about 3,000 years ago when the original marshes near the Sumerian cities dried out and the coastline moved south-east. They have been recognized because of their bird life and the connection to the life of the Marsh Arabs, whose traditional lifestyle was immortalized in the book by Wilfred Thesiger. A visit was included in my tour, but I wondered beforehand whether we would end up at the core zone or an area especially designed for tourists. 

Already in the city of Nassiraya the Marshes are signposted with the globally known brown road signs. We drove for 1 hour and 15 minutes to a place where they’ve built a reception area with boats for tourists and a few reed houses. It is near the shiny-silver Martyrs Monument in Chabaish, where at the entrance they even sport a full WHS plaque indicating the Central Marshes component. So core zone it definitely was! The Martyrs Monument commemorates the struggle of the Marsh Arabs against Saddam Hussein, who took a particular dislike to them as they actively rebelled against his regime, are Shia Muslims and led an independent lifestyle. The network of waterways suited itself for guerrilla-style battles, which prompted Saddam to the infamous Draining of the Marshes in the 1990s, meant to eradicate the lifestyle of the Marsh Arabs. 

After a short explanation about the life of the Marsh Arabs and a refreshment in the reed “welcome hut”, we went on for a 1.5h tour in narrow, low motorized boats through the Central Marshes. A police boat went ahead of us all the time. The area still has issues with its water levels (the Turkish dam near Diyarbakir is blamed), but it’s a refreshingly green and clean place by Iraqi standards. The people live off buffalo and some tourism, they usually don’t live on the reed islands anymore (they go home to modern comforts overnight). The marshes don’t produce many fish.

Along the channels, still plenty of reed huts are standing, some very pretty in design. We were told that it takes about 10 days to build one and they last for about 10 years. In the past, they added up to 4 layers of reed as a rain cover (now they just add a plastic tarp). We anchored at a reed island where 3 men were tending a couple of buffalo. These huge and ill-tempered beasts are expensive and mostly kept to produce milk. 

The boat ride also produced several birds standing on the banks (lapwings, egrets, kingfishers), although the boatmen did not seem to care for them much and certainly weren’t deemed worthy enough for a stop. It’s not hard to imagine, though, that the birds will be happy that these marshes still exist in an otherwise desperately dry region.

Read more from Els Slots here.

Cobaltrage

4.50 Texas - 25-Feb-19 -

I visited this region of Iraq in the Fall of 2008. An opportunity arose for myself and some companions to visit the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur. I had seen pictures and read about the Ziggurat of Ur since I was a boy so I jumped at the chance. The greatest surprise was how extensive the ruins of the rest of the city are. We parked in the lot at the base of the Ziggurat and climbed up the steps to the top. From there the ruins reached out covering a vast area of the desert. Upon climbing down, we walked towards the rest of the ruins to explore but were stopped at the voice of a man calling to us from a distance. He approached and told us that the rest of the ruins were off-limits. We let him know that we meant no harm and were fascinated by the history of this ancient place. It was then that he introduced himself as Dhaif and explained that he was the caretaker of Ur. He said that his grandfather had been foreman of the workers during the archaeological excavations in 1922 and stayed on the site to take care of it after the British left. His father took over in the 1960's and he took over care of the place in the 1990's. He then offered to give us a tour of the entire place so, of course, we accepted. Over the next hour and a half he showed us the world's oldest known standing arch, the ruins of the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar, the Royal Tombs of Ur, and the House of Abraham. Possessing three generations worth of knowledge on the area, Dhaif was the perfect tour guide. With the wars in the area winding down, I would highly recommend a trip to this location for anyone interested in walking through several thousand years of ancient history.

Thomas Buechler

4.50 Switzerland - 06-Dec-18 -

Ur was once an important Sumerian city state near the mouth of the Euphrates river, at the coast with marshy surroundings and regular floods and adverse weather impacts like erosions.Ur was already occupied as early as 6500 BC during the Urbaid period, but had its peak during the Sumerian period about 3000 BC. Buildings were made out of mudbricks and mud plaster. The main temple, Ziggurat of Ur, was built during king Ur-Nammu reign about 2040 BC. His codes of law (Hammurabi) is the oldest existing deciphered law writing in the world, the original at the Louvre museum, but replicas in many places including the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. On the basalt stele are 282 laws including the famous “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” rules. Ur is also mentioned four times in the Old Testament and in the Book of Genesis as the birthplace of Abraham 2000 BC.The site was first excavated 1853 by the British Museum and the British Vice Consul in Basra who also uncovered the Ziggurat (main temple dedicated to the Moon god Nanna)It was later on reconstructed, including its monumental staircase. However, the third level has collapsed, and its present height is 17 meters from the original of 26. Ur is surrounded by 2 ramparts constructed during Sumerian and Babylonian times. The closest city with infrastructure is Nasariyah, it has decent hotels and restaurants and at present no security problems. We have also visited Uruk where we could talk to German archaeologists at work to stabilize the temples, under the management of the DAI, the German Archaelogical Institute and Margarete van Ess who played a vital role in the conservation of archaeological sites of Babylon, especially Uruk und Ur.