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.
We wandered the whole evening around Karbala – Shiite Islam’s principal holy city. It lies 88 kilometers southwest of Baghdad. The city’s religious significance derives from the Battle of Karbala (680 CE), a one-sided contest in which al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, the Shiʿi leader...
Babylon was one of the largest, oldest settlements in Mesopotamia and the Middle East on the Euphrates River. It was the seat of successive powerful empires under such famous rulers as Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar. Babylon was the capital of southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) from the early...
After crossing some terrible checkpoints, we arrived at the Ctesiphon, an ancient city located on the left bank of the Tigris River about 32 kilometers southeast of modern Baghdad. It served as the winter capital of the Parthian Empire and later the Sāsānian Empire. The site is famous for...
Finally, we arrived in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, located on the Tigris River in the heart of ancient Mesopotamia, around 530 kilometers from the headwaters of the Persian Gulf. The city was founded in 762 as the capital of the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs. For the next 500 years, it was...