From the nomadic steppes of Kazakhstan to the frenetic streets of Hanoi, Asia is a continent so full of intrigue, adventure, solace, and spirituality that it has fixated and confounded travelers for centuries.
Today we drove through the countryside from Najaf to Uruk. The road was not so bad, and many parts were newly paved. There were also fewer checkpoints than usual, so we drove a bit faster than expected. After the visit to Uruk, we stopped at a little village on the banks of the Eufrat...
Sumerian Uruk is an ancient Mesopotamian city located northwest of Ur (Tall Al-Muqayyar) in southeastern Iraq. The site was excavated from 1928 onward by the German Oriental Society and the German Archeological Institute. Uruk was one of the greatest cities of Sumer and was enclosed by...
We spent a night in another holy city, Al-Najaf. It lies on a ridge just west of the Euphrates River, about 160 kilometers south of Baghdad. It is one of Shiʿi Islam’s two major holy cities (the other is Karbalā) and is widely held to be the resting place of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib...
West of Karbala, in the desert, are the ruins of Al-Ukhaidir, a Sasanian-style fortress constructed by the Abbasid caliph As-Saffah’s nephew Isa ibn Musa around 775 AD. It is a large, rectangular fortress with a unique defensive style and represents Abbasid architectural innovation...