Nimrud

Situated on the Tigris River south of Mosul, Nimrud was one of the great cities of Assyria. Unlike many of the ancient settlements of Mesopotamia, Nimrud was a new foundation by Shalmaneser I of Assyria in the mid 13th century BC. It reached its height during the reign of Assurnasirpal II (884-859 BC) who made it the capital of Assyria; it remained so until 710 BC when the capital was transferred first to Khorsabad and then to Nineveh.

An8 km-long wall surrounds the 200 hectares city, which includes a citadel in the southwest corner, where a Ziggurat was erected, a temple dedicated to Ninurta (patron deity of the city), a temple dedicated to Nabu (god of writing) and a series of palaces. The largest and most important is the Northwest Palace built by Assurnasirpal II in mud-brick and decorated with gypsum reliefs and wall paintings. There are remaining pieces of carved ivory furniture, which were obtained by plundering or received as payments for protection. Recent excavations have revealed three royal tombs containing incredible treasures, as well as an imposing stone wall.

Nimrud. Aerial view of the citadel (copyright "Learning Sites, Inc. Digitally Reconstructed Ancient Worlds for Interactive Education and Research)

Samarra

Stretching for over 40 km along the banks of the Tigris, Samarra is recognized as possibly the largest archaeological site in the world today. It was developed as an important centre in 836 CE, when the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tassim established it as his capital, following clashes between his troops (of Central Asian origin) and the population of Baghdad. In searching for a residence for the court, and a base for the Abbasid army, outside of Baghdad, the Caliph chose the region for its hunting, even though it was poor in natural resources. The city remained in power for 56 years and was home to eight caliphs, until 892 when the power returned to Baghdad.

Mud brick and pise (clay) were the main building materials in Samarra. Baked brick was used for more important structures such as the Great Mosque and the Bab al-Amma. Carved and moulded stucco panels decorated palaces and houses, and provide the earliest examples of bevelled stucco decoration. None of the wall paintings or glass mosaics, which decorated some of Samarra's palaces, remain today.

Directly to the east of the Caliph's palace is the Great Mosque of Samarra with its famous spiral minaret (the Malwiyya), which may have been influenced by earlier Mesopotamian ziggurats. Measuring over 240 by 160 m, this is one of the largest mosques in the world, as well as one of the most important for the development of the Islamic architecture. The internal structure, which is being today rebuilt with modern materials, was originally in marble columns. A large fountain was placed at the centre of the main court. The modern town of Samarra is located approximately in the centre of the Abbasid city.

Great Mosque and City of Samarra. Early twentieth century aerial view (archive of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities)	Samarra. The Great Mosque during the reconstruction works in the year 2000. (photograph by G.Boccardi, UNESCO WHC)	Samarra. City walls (photograph by G. Boccardi, UNESCO WHC)

The Ancient City of Nineveh

Located opposite modern Mosul, 400 kilometres north of Baghdad on the Tigris River, Nineveh is one of the most important of the ancient Mesopotamian cities and is often mentioned in the Bible. Today, the site consists of several mounds, the main one being the palace of Kuyunjik. It was occupied from the 6th millennium BC until it was destroyed by the Medes late in the 7th century BC.

The city was at its prime in the 7th century BC when Sennacherib made it the capital of Assyria. Most of the surviving remains date from this period, including parts of the city wall, which was 12 kilometres in circumference, and the great palace of Sennacherib with its splendid reliefs. Some of these reliefs, together with the great archives of Cuneiform tablets, which constituted the two libraries of Sennacherib and his grandson Assurbanipal, were transferred to the Louvre and the British Museum during the 19th century.

Nineveh. Main gate (Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage)

The Fortress of Al-Ukhaidar

Among the famous palaces built by Abbassid Caliphs and Emirs is the Al Ukhaidar Palace, a fortified complex containing halls, courtyards, apartments and a Mosque, built along an important commercial route.

Built between 774-775 by Isa ibn Musa some 100 km southwest of Baghdad, the Palace is rectangular in shape with sides of 176 x 146 Mt. It contains a main reception hall, a grand Iwan and servants' quarters. The palace is considered a masterpiece of technical innovation, and has had an important impact on the development of Islamic architecture.

During the Gulf War, an ammunition storage depot, located close to the Palace of Al-Ukhaidar, was hit by two air-strikes on Jan. 20, 1991, and around midnight on Feb. 13, 1991. Fortunately, it seems that the Abbasid fortress was not damaged. Since then, the UNSCOM team has inspected the storage on several occasions, including last January.

Al Ukhaidar. The Mosque	Al Ukhaidar. General plan (Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage)

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Tell al-Muqayyar (ancient Ur) lies near the city of Nasiriyah in the south-western floodplain of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The capital of a small wealthy empire during the third millennium B.C, Ur was fabled as the city of the Sumerian moon god Nanna and the traditional home of the biblical patriarch Abraham (Gen. 12:4-5). The city was also known in the Bible as Ur of the Chaldees. This biblical name refers to the Chaldeans, who settled the area about 900 B.C.

Ur's mounded ruins encompass 1,200 meters northwest to southeast and 800 meters northeast to southwest. They rise to a height of 20 meters above the surrounding plain, although the ruin of the ziggurat (temple tower) on the northwest end of the site rises even higher. A long, broken line of smaller mounds extends more than l,500 meters to the north-northeast.

The ruins of Ur were found and first excavated by the British consul J.E. Taylor, who partly uncovered the ziggurat of Nanna. However, no excavation in the more than 150 years of archaeological work in Mesopotamia has drawn as much public attention as C. Leonard Woolley's work at ancient Ur in the 1920s and early 1930s. The most spectacular discovery was the Royal Cemetery, which contained art treasures of gold, silver, bronze, and precious stones. Among the numerous clay tablets recovered, some told the story of the epic hero Gilgamesh.

Ur, The Great Ziggurat (Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage)

Wasit lies south-east of the modern town of Kut, in southern Iraq. It was founded in 701 CE by al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf Al Thaqafi, governor of Iraq, as an administrative centre and a garrison town to replace Kufa and Basra, after a revolt against the Umayyads.

Excavations in 1936-1942, and again in 1985, have revealed the remains of a madrassa (religious school), residential buildings and two superimposed mosques, the earlier of which had no mihrab. These findings confirm the early date of the mosque (possibly 703 CE), as the first concave mihrab was introduced by al-Walid in 707-9 in the mosque of Medina.

The devastation brought by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, and by Timur in the fourteenth, hastened the decline of a city that was no longer on the main trade routes due to a change in the course of the Tigris.

Wasit, Ancient Gate (Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage)