Samarra Minaret

 

Samarra Minaret 

I might have missed taking photos of Hillah, better known as Babylon, and of Baghdad, but I have found a camera...it is only a cheap and not an up to date version but it takea photos, so I am back on line and can post some photos. 

                                                  

I haven't managed to translate all the settings from Arabic but it is forcing an improvement in my Arabic trying to reset the functions, so ignore the date stamp as it is six months ahead of itself. Above is the famous Samarra Minaret, iconic and instantly recognisable. It was built in 851AD by Al Matawakkil along with the mosque adjacent to it. Bith ar UNESCO sites but only accessible by muslims so this is the nearest that non-muslims can get and there is no picture of the mosque as it is hidden behind a wall.

It is 52 metres high so it can be seen from a long way away across the flat and featureless desert. The mosque when it was built was the largest in the world. The minaret is 33 metres wide at the base and its spiral ramp up the outside makes it instantly recognisable.

                                                 

We couldn't get near to the Samarra Minaret but just 22 kilometres to the north is the Abu Dulaf Mosque and Minaret, built to the same design just eight years later...a nd it is free to enter. And as an added bonus, visitors with a head for heights can walk up the spiral ramp to reach the top. 

Some brave members of the group standing at the top

And the ruins of the adjacent runied mosqur provide opportunities for some photos...

...views along the arches...

...and of the outside, with the mud brick surrounding wall to the left...plus tons of rubbish wherever the wind blows it into hollows. It was a Friday when I visited and it is a popular picnic spot with families and cars scattered around and inside the ruins.


                                       

And a picture of Marianna (the name of the truck, as by tradition, all overlanding trucks have a name) with the minaret in the back ground. She is an old girl and needs a lot of maintenance...this time she was leaking coolant, so another job to be done to replace the part when a spare can be found.

But it didn't hinder our continued journey north via Tikrit, birth place of Saddam Hussein and known by historians as also the birth place of Saladin (1137 - 1193), the first sultan of both egypt and Syria and leader of the muslim military effort to dislodge the Christians from the Holy Land during the Third Crusade (1189 - 1192) in which Richard the Lionheart was involved.

Our next stop was Mosul in the heart of Kurdistan.

Sunrise across the Euphrates

 Sunrise across the Euphrates   

                                        

Another view of the martyrs monument as we set off to see the sunrise and have breakfast with another marsh family in the Hammer marsh.

A bridge carrying one of the few roads in the area, all built on causeways to avoid flooding.

Speeding along the river towards another bridge.

And another view of the sunrise from the water. 

After a traditional breakfast in a reed house, we set off for Hillah, better know as Babylon. 

The Mesopotamian Marshes

 The Mesopotamian Marshes 

Bfore I left Nasiriyah, I walked through the centre of town for one last look. A statue at the end of the man street, but the inscription was obscured by a poster.

The entrance to the museum, closed despite claiming to be open at 9am.

A bridge being built over the Euphrates, one of the landward ends of the bridge...

...and a view of the opposite end of the new bridge.

Looking downriver was another bridge with a line of protestors walking across. The y wanted an end to corruption, some reforms and the release of activists who had been arrested in earlier protests. 

A modern building, another inspired by the nearby Ziggurat. 

And another bridge, carrying a local road which has a temporary substitute for pedestrians and cyclists but has not yet been repaired for vehicles.

A look across the Euphrates where we were going to pick up our boats to take us to our Mesopotanian Marsh Arab overnight experience.

Our oats.

The mosque opposite, made out of reeds as is the tradition for all buldings in the marshes.

Our police escort.

One of the other boats...

...and then we were away.

Our local guide, Ali at the back of the boat.

Our marsh guide, Haider.

One of the many buildings en route...

...a front view...

...some of the vegetation....

...differnet types of reed...

...buffalos...

...more buffalos...

The scrfs that the men wear are traditional patterns....the main central pattern represents the fish nets that they use....

...the pattern around the edge represents the many birds that inhabit the marshes either as permanent residents or as a migratory stop over. 

When to the reeds die back and dry out, they set fire to them to encourage new shoots.

Water buffalo crossing the channel.

They have ribbons tied to their horns for identification.

They are good swimmers and like the water. 

The dome of a monument to the martyrs in the distance as we sped past.

Our lodgings for the evening in the community hall. It was made of reeds although the plastic sheeting is more effective and quicker to put on against wind and rain. Otherwise it is several layers of thatched reed matting.

The inside was warm with carpets and cushions.

Our evening meal, bread, fruit, dates, cheeses and yoghurts from buffalo milk, rice and locally caught fish.

Getting ready for bed, sleeping on foam mattresses on the floor. 

The Ziggurat at Ur, Iraq

 The Ziggurat at Ur 

 We left the Barada Hotel in Najaf and drove south. We were stopped several times by the police or army which made the journey longer.

We stopped at the Zigguarat at Ur at 2pm. We paid our IQD25,000 (a bit less than USD20) entry fee. We walked up to the main building. It is a stepped pyramid built with mud bricks and faced with fired bricks. It has three stairways ascending to the top, now 16 metres high but it used to be 26 metres high.

It was built by the Samerian king Ur Nammu and inaugurated in 21st century BC so it is more than 4,000 years old. It predates the stepped pyramids in Egypt and it is believed that those were inspired by this and similar structures built in Mesopotamia.

The name ziggurat comes from the Samerian word zigguratum meaning pinnacle.

Visitors are no longer able to climb to the top to preserve the monument. Neither are they allowed to walk around the site, just to view the main building from the front. 

As there was so little to see, we soon moved on to our hotel, the Gudea Hotel in Nasiriyah.

No photos as the camera decided not to work but there are photos on the internet.

And then it changed its mind when I wanted a photo of a pontoon bridge over the Euphrates and the sunset.

Forts and shrines near Najaf

Forts and shrines near Najaf  

We left Karbala for whst should have been a short drive south. Our route went via Baghdad but the traffic was murder...so we back tracked to avoid the congested motorways to use ordinary main roads. The route was longer but the traffic moved. We also got rid of our pokice escort...we spoke to their commander who pulled them back to other duties so we could go at the permitted speed limit rather than their convoy speed.

That was fine for a while until an army checkpoint stopped us and we needed an escort. It was only a few kilometres into a seecurity zone bit orders are orders. We had a army escort to get to Al Ukhaidir Fortress. It is 160 metres along each side of a square. It is set in the desert awy from everything else. It looks impressive...

,,,but it was closed and still being built, despite being 700 years old. I suspect the officer meant refurbished rather than built, but it did look in remarkable condition.

One of the four gates.

A corner.

The only other building on site.

The main entrance.

The desert is flaat sand but where there is water, the desert can bloom...not clear from the picture but one round field in the centre is a well and pump that drives a set of sprinklers on an air on wheels to irrigate the crops.

Next just a few kilometres away was a 5th century church, Al Aqasir. Thats all we could see from the surrounding fence until the watchman came and unlocked the gates...

...a distant view of one wall...

...another view...

...the inner east wall...

...some of the plundered graves...

And then, since we had 'lost' our escort, we stopped at the At-Tar caves, convniently just a stone's throw from the main road where we 'lost'our escort. There are 400 man made caves dug into the soft sandstone, with evidence of being used over 13,000 years ago.

Other odd formations...

...and some hidden caves....

...odd weathering...

...holes in rocks....

...and pillars.

We got our passports bak from the army checkpoint who were probably happy to see the last of us. 

Then we drove on to nearby Najaf, another religous city and the shrine of Ali Hussein...the entrance to the shrine via a souk...

...and the main entrance to the shrine...and of course cameras are haram meaning forbidden so this is my only photo of the shrine...although oddly, phones are not confiscted and although phones photos are banned, people were eagerly taking selfies despite the rules.