Cultural Explorations:
A Journey to Iraq

By Mahmood M. Poonja, Bestway Tours and Safaris

Most people in recent times would never have considered touring Iraq. However, I was fortunate to accompany tourist groups on two journeys that covered the history and culture of Iraq just before the latest war. The theme of our tours was “Mesopotamia: Where It All Began.” Truly, that sense of origin is what Iraq is (or was?) all about.

Five thousand years ago, what is now Iraq was home to the first cities in the world, to the invention of writing, monument building and the art of architecture, In short, it was the cradle of civilization. Oft mentioned in the Bible, the land that became modern day Iraq was also the traditional site of the Garden of Eden, the birthplace of prophets, including Abraham and Jonah, and home to the most well known of the ancient wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Present day Iraq is also home to some of Islam’s most important cities, including Kerbala, Najaf and Kufa. In times past, the country was the seat of the Abbassid Empire where many of the scientific developments that have played a vital role to modernity unfolded. It is also the land where the stories that make up the famous 1001 (Arabian) Nights were conceived.

Our two journeys to Iraq were both taken during the era of Saddam Hussein, and the rules for obtaining tourist visa for Iraq were, at best, confusing. The border crossings required a lot of paperwork, including producing certificates proving negative HIV (which had to be no more than six days old – later extended to 10 days). Cameras were allowed only if they did not have powerful lenses. “Powerful” not having being defined, it was left to our smiles and the customs officer’s mood, which always changed for the better after the officer had his proud moments showing off to his colleagues the many cameras hanging off his neck.

So while the border crossing was a time-consuming affair it was an interesting cultural encounter. To our surprise, during our first visit while all this drill was taking place, we were offered free soft drinks – a warm welcome to our group of North American tourists. The drinks, coming from the pocket of an underpaid officer working in a land where bottled water sells for more than gas, were a wonderful gesture.

Civilization’s Cradle 

This is an ancient land. The Greeks named it Mesopotamia, “the land between two rivers.” The reference was to the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, which originate in the mountains of eastern Turkey, flow southeast and converge at Qurnah in southeast Iraq, from where they continue to the Persian Gulf. Although the hot, dry climate, combined with seasonal flooding, was difficult and challenging, ancient farmers there learned to control the flooding and exploited the resulting fertility to produce such crops as barley, wheat, flax and sesame. The fertile ground also supported many different kinds of fruit and vegetable crops. With such abundance, the first civilization grew here, eventually spreading to the rest of the world. It is no wonder, then, that in terms of artifacts from successive civilizations, Iraq, without a doubt, is the richest country in the world. 

Mesopotamia flourished in the land we today call Iraq. Contemporary Iraq has more than 10,000 archaeological sites dating back over 7,000 years. Most sites are large areas where a whole city-state, like Sumer, home of the first city-state and the first writing, flourished. At the archaeological sites of Nineveh and Nimrud, capitals of the famous Babylonian emperor Ashurnasirpal II, who ruled in 879 B.C., we saw excavations taking place and were welcomed personally by the chief archaeologist of the region. At Babylon, home to the famous “Hanging Gardens,” we saw a whole city that had been reconstructed giving us a good view of it must have looked. On one stone of modern and current materials was an inscription that read,  “Nebuchadnezzar built Babylon. Saddam Hussein rebuilt it.”

Visiting the many sites where history was made gave us a feeling of excitement that just cannot be described. Here were places of treasure, where the seeds of the civilization were sown. At the southern city of Ur, we saw the place where the prophet Abraham, patriarch of the Jews, Christians and Muslims, was born and lived. His reconstructed house showed a collection of rooms, lined one after another, that brought back the life style of those days. Not very far from Ur lie the remains of Alexander of Macedonia, the great Greek conqueror.

At Qurnah, the convergence of the Euphrates and Tigris, we explored the remains of what tradition says was the Garden of Eden. The fig tree standing in the center of the complex was the exciting feature we all wanted to photograph, however, the place left much to be desired. There was no doubt at one time it must have seen better days, with green, fertile pastures, hence its name. The most southern city in Iraq we visited was Basra, which lies at the banks of the Shatt-el-Arab. As we took a local boat cruise, our guide narrated the story of Sindbad the sailor and showed us the place where Sindbad was said to have taken off on his journeys – one of the most popular stories of the famous Arabian Nights.

Basra offered a beautiful coastline, but also had its slums – much of it them a result of the first Gulf War.

Shiism’s Spiritual Center 

One of the most interesting places to visit are the Islamic cities of Kerbala, Najaf and Qufa. These cities played a vital role in the history of early Islam, particularly during the establishment of Shiism. At Kerbala, huge gold domes on two massive turquoise-colored mosques face each other. The mosques, named after Imam Hussain and his cousin Abbas, are sacred places of pilgrimage for the Shiites. Pilgrims pay respect to their leaders who sacrificed their lives by not accepting to pay allegiance to the Caliph in Damascus. On any given day and time, one finds scores of people visiting Kerbala and offering prayers, meditation, feeding the poor and even having family outings. There are more Shiite sites in Iraq then in Iran, so there always has been a large influx of Iranians visiting Iraq as pilgrims.

Though both these sites are holy to the Shiites, they were open to non-Muslims as well, and tour members were free to walk around the courtyard, take photos and meet people. The inside portion is however open only to Muslims, be they Shiite or Sunnis. The adjoining cities of Najaf and Qufa house many more Shiite sites, including a large cemetery, several mosques and madressahs (religious schools). It is also here that the main school of Shiite thought exists and where the ayatollahs undergo their training. 

The magnificence of modern day Iraq lies in the capital city of Baghdad. Baghdad – the name means “garden of God” – is a large and beautiful city. It was during the early days of the Abbasid period (750–969 A.D.) that Baghdad became the world center of intellectual and aesthetic growth. It was also here that the stories of Arabian Nights were conceived, where science, especially medicine, astronomy, mathematics, algebra, etc. developed and flourished. Names such as al-Khawarismi, the discoverer of algebraic equations (his name was later Latinized to Algorismus), al-Kindi, the philosopher who applied reason to tradition, al-Razi, a physician who compiled a medical encyclopedia and al-Ghazzali, a scholar of religious law, were names still proudly referred to by our guides.

Baghdad maintained its beauty and majesty. From the palaces of the Abbasids to the palaces of Saddam Hussein, medieval and modern schools, museums, mausoleums and gardens, the city certainly had an atmosphere reflecting its historical past. The pride of the Iraqis, the city had  construction of aesthetically designed structures going on seemingly everywhere, all from locally manufactured materials. We stayed at the famous al-Rasheed Hotel, which like all other hotels in the country, had a large underground hall designated as a bomb shelter for use in case of an air raid. Other “five-star" hotels in the city included the Palestine and the al Mansuriya, both of which were very much in the news during the recent bombings.

The Fate of the Iraqi Museum 

A must-see place in Baghdad was the Iraqi Museum. The two-floor building, each floor with 12 halls specializing in different periods of history, gave a clear picture of the treasures and wealth that this nation, with the oldest recorded history, offered. Probably the best preserved and well managed museum in the Middle East, the Iraqi Museum had several thousand artifacts captioned with the date and era it belonged to. Centrally located and well planned, it was an easy place to guard. It is a shame that this was not done. The stolen treasures are a loss to humanity and the looting of the museum will be recorded as the darkest moments in the fight for the regime change in Iraq.

Besides the archaeological sites, we also visited the bazaars and souqs of Mosul, The stores were stocked with items that were mostly locally manufactured, since Iraq was banned from trading with other countries. It was interesting to see that the roads and basic services, including water, food and telephones, were easily available and not expensive. Iraqis are known to be well educated and enterprising people, however, importation of essential commodities relating to medicine, hospital usage, higher education did handicap their lifestyle and there was a lot of anger among the people over the sanctions.

In spite of all this, we were never questioned, nor did we see any anti-American or anti-West slogans anywhere in the country. All this was very interesting and took all of us by surprise. In most cases, the people, when learning that there we were a group of North Americans, made particular efforts to come to us and welcome us to Iraq. There was a genuine interest in meeting Americans and practicing their English. Often they made it clear that they had particular fondness for the American people but did not like the Administration.

The currency in Iraq was the Iraqi dinar, with a conversion rate of 750 dinars to one U.S. dollar. Prior to the first Gulf war, the exchange rate, we were told, was one dinar to three U.S. dollars! So there was massive currency devaluation of the dinar after the first Gulf War.

We all felt sad to see that unlike other countries where archaeological sites would always have scores of visitors, the sites in Iraq had hardly any. Iraqis, by and large, respected their history and we did not find any damage or graffiti on the many stone structures lying across vast areas of these ancient city states. 

Our first tour of Iraq was in May of 2001, while the second was in October 2002, a year after 9/11. The second tour took place a few weeks after the famous referendum that declared that 100% of the Iraqi people had voted for the continuation of Saddam Hussein as their president. In celebration of the referendum’s results, the Al Rasheed Hotel had a 100-painting exhibition of Saddam Hussein in different uniforms and garbs performing different roles. It was also the time when heated debates were taking place at the UN Security Council to consider allowing UN inspectors into Iraq. A few weeks after our tour ended, the UN inspectors entered the country.

The large archaeological sites had structures made from mud, clay, bricks and stone. Little is known of the state of these objects after the massive bombings. Though there is no report of any bombings targeted at any of the sites, there is no doubt that many of the 7,000-year-old clay and stone structures would not have been able to resist the impact.

These tours were very memorable, not only because of historic time at which they were undertaken, but more so for the impressions they left on me. Thinking about them brings back memories of how we were met by smiling children wanting to photographed; by men who asked us to join them smoking their water pipes; by women welcoming us to visit their homes and join them for a meal; of the many historical sites we visited (all alone without being disturbed by other tourist groups); of the welcomes when we visited historical monasteries, churches and mosques; of the Iraqi Museum – in short, of the country as it was then. Most Iraqis sincerely believed that there would never be a war and the world would solve this problem in a civilized manner. For, after all, theirs was the land where the very beginning of civilization took place.