El Ukhaydir: This castle was built in the middle of the desert at an unknown date. It may have been built at the beginning of the Abbasid empire. Surrounded by a rectangular wall reinforced by steps, it is built out of stones bound with mortar.

Kufa: The city was founded at the beginning of the Arab conquests in 618. It is in the Great Mosque that Imam Ali was assassinated in 661.

Nadjaf: The Holy City of the Shiite where the sanctuary of Imam Ali is decorated with a splendid dome and two minarets. The city has many Koran schools, Madrassa. Each year, several thousand Shiite pilgrims go there.

Kerbala: The city was the witness of events whose consequences still have an impact on the life of the Iraqis and the relations with Iran. In 680 AD, the Tuff battle saw the decisive showdown between Umayyad and the partisans of Imam Ali during which Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas were killed. The two sanctuaries located at Kerbala are remarkable for their Iwan giving access to the room of prayers, the two minarets and the mosaics.

Marshes: This area is the result of the withdrawal of the sea from Shatt Al-Arab over approximately 150Km. We visited the fishermen's villages of Chibayish and Qurna, which may be the Eden of the Genesis.
The dwellings are huts made of reeds posed on small islands of ground and the streets are channels. The houses, on the Sumerian time, model consist of the assembling of reeds in rolls taking the shape of a perfect warhead, covered with carpets of braided reeds and open-type screens for ventilation.
They are lake cities like on lake Titicaca or lake Inle. The differences lie in the altitude, on the sea level, and in material, the reed.

Ur: The Sumerian city whose name means "bitumen hill", is called "Chaldean Ur" by the Genesis (XI, 31). The fatherland of Abraham, it was one of the most prestigious cities in the 5th millennium BC.
A Ziggurat was a religious building which had a temple in its top dedicated to a divinity. The burial mound was explored by Woolley in 1927. The funerary objects are exposed at the Museum of Baghdad.
The palace and the tombs were visited. Seen from the summit of the Ziggurat the city spreads on a large area surrounded with a thick raw brick wall partly eroded.

Babylon: A legendary city of ancient history, Babylon occupies a great place in the Bible and the writings of travellers and historians, for example Herodote. The walls and the hanging gardens were among the seven wonders in the old world. The city took its rise at the time of king Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), then declined under the pressure of other Cities-States of the area to reappear under Nabuchodonosor (605-563 BC). Alexander the Great made it his capital and died there in 322 BC back from India.
The site has been heavely restored. We entered through the Marduk gate and visited successively by walking the processional way:
Ninmah Temple:The temple was entirely rebuilt.
Ishtar Temple: One of the main temples of the site. Its plan is identical to the others, a gate flanked by two towers opening on a yard then into an anticella then the cella where the statue of the honoured divinity stood.
Nabu Temple: Built on a similar plan, it is characterized by the yard covered with bitumen. The walls of the cellas and yards are covered with plaster and bitumen.
Ishtar Gate: It is located below the processional way and has kept the traces of its old decorations in the shape of bulls and dragons. A great part of it was transported to Berlin before World War I. A reconstitution was made in situ.
The Hanging gardens are a myth to some extent. In reality, they may be the terraces of the gigantic warehouses which may have been set up in pleasure gardens.

Kish: The city, called "the Red", the colour of the brick of the Ziggurat, was the capital of Sargon (2334-2279 BC) king of Akkad. The site is important in the mythology of Mesopotamia, the inhabitants believed that, after the Flood, the king went down from Heaven.

Samara: The city was founded in 836 AD by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mu'tasim, but it expanded under Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (847-861). In 892, Caliph Al-Mu'tadhid transferred the Abbasid capital to Baghdad.
Ma' shouq palace: In the north-west the palace of the "beloved" was built by Al-Mu'tadhid out of bricks on a high platform with arches supporting the roof. A spiral staircase leads up to the rooms decorated with clay arabesques.
Al-Mu'tasim palace: Built by Al-Mu'tasim overlooking the Tiger, there is nothing left but three iwans called "the Gate of the common people". Indeed the Caliph sat down there to listen to the complaints of his people.
Great Mosque: It is the largest mosque in the Arab world built of bricks and clay in 852 by Al-Mu'tasim. Rectangular, it measures 240m by 160 meters. The walls are 10 m high and 2,65 meters wide. The spiral minaret stands up outside the building.
Abu Duluf mosque: Built by Al-Mu'tadhid, it is a ruined small-scale model of the former.

Askari sanctuary: The tomb of two Imams, Ali Al-Hadi and his son Hassan Al-Askari is crowned by a dome covered with gold as well as the two minarets 36 meters high.

Nineveh: The city was the third capital of the Assyrian kingdom built on the eastern bank of the Tiger. It is surrounded by a rampart with fifteen gates bearing the names of Assyrian gods. The entrance is made through the Nergal gate that has a small museum.
The Koyunjuk hill gathers the best preserved buildings, the Sennacherib palace kept by lions and winged bulls, called Lamassu. The majority of the sumptuous low-reliefs are in the British Museum. The Assourbanipal palace had a library of several thousands clay tablets with cuneiform writings.
The Nabi Younis hill has a mosque dedicated to Jonas.

Bash Tapia Citadel: It used to be part of the large Mosul wall which does not exist any more. Only the imposing ruins of the citadel on the side of the Tiger.

The curved minaret of the Nuri mosque was built in 1172.
Saint Thomas church is one of the oldest in Mosul.

Museum of Mosul: It gathers a rich collection of artefacts of ancient civilizations from the stone age to the Islam era.

Korsabad: The city was the fourth capital of the Assyrian kingdom, founded by Sargon II (721-705 BC). It was not inhabited a very long time. Nothing is left but a vast heap of raw bricks whose most remarkable elements are in the Museum of Le Louvre, two Lamassi, or in the Museum of Baghdad.

Sheik Hadi: The "Rome of Yézidis" is the home of a mysterious sect at the borders of Zoroastrism, Christianity and Islam. It perpetuates the worship of Mazdean fire.

Al-Koch: The city has a very old Christian community and the monastery of the "good harvests".

Nimrod: The city was the second capital of the Assyrian kingdom. It was famous well before Salmaneser I (1273-1244 BC) made it the centre of his kingdom. The most important kings were Assur-nasir-pall II (885-858 BC) and Salmaneser III (858-824 BC).
The ziggurat and the Assurnasirpal II palace were visited. The entrance of the palace is flanked by two winged bulls with human heads. Foreign archaeologists have left some sumptuous low-reliefs in place. Superb objects were discovered and are exposed in Baghdad. The most remarkable is "the Mona Lisa of Nimrod" made of ivory (720 BC).

Mar Behnam: The city is also called Deir Al-Jubb "the cistern monastery". It dates back from the 12th century AD. The tomb of St Bernard has inscriptions in Syrian, Arabic and Mongolian.

The old city: The old city was visited on foot to wander through the ancient streets. The following buildings were visited:
Abbasid palace: It may have been built by Caliph Al-Nasser Lidinillah (1179-1225). Partially restored, it has a very balanced beautiful architecture with a vast yard surrounded by two floored buildings and a remarkable iwan with a ceiling and a frontage made of bricks. Arabesques cover the walls.
Mustansiriya madrassa: The whole of the buildings corresponds to a multi-field university campus which it said to be the most renowned in the Islamic world of the Abbasid time. The rectangular brick building is decorated with geometrical drawings and the entrance gate with Koran verses.
Khan Murjan caravanserai: This was the place where caravaneers had rest and provided incomes to the Koran schools. It is built in rotunda on a large central hall. The rooms give onto the hall and are accessible by a staircase giving on a gangway set on brick arcades.

Aqargouf: The city was founded by king Kurigalzu in the 15th century BC on the Sumero-Babylonian plan. Most of the ziggurat, 57 meters high, is destroyed. The structure of the core is perfectly visible by the clay-brick fitting. The site has vestiges of temples and palaces.

Ctésiphon: The site has a great historical importance. The city was founded by Seleucos Ist (358-281 BC), who was one of Alexander the Great's lieutenants. In the middle of the site, a splendid arch built out of brick stands up majestically in a ruined site, it is only the iwan left in the royal palace.

Holy Places: The city of Baghdad has many tombs and mosques. We visited the Sitt Zumurrud Khatoun tomb and the Sheik Omar Al-Sahrawardi sanctuary.

Ramparts and Gates: In 762 AD, Al-Mansur built Baghdad on a circular plan with ramparts and gates to ensure its defence. The only gate which remains nowadays is that of Dhafariya. The gate tower is +14 meters high and covered by an octagonal dome. The place is partially in ruin.