Explore Mesopotamia

11/30/2025

Al‑Hadba Minaret was built in 1172 by the Seljuk ruler Nur al‑Din Zangi as part of a larger religious complex including Al‑Nuri Mosque.
The minaret was about 45 metres tall, with a cylindrical shaft decorated with ornamental brickwork.
Over the centuries, the shaft developed a noticeable tilt. By the 14th century the lean was distinct enough that the minaret acquired the name “Al‑Hadba” — Arabic for “the hunchback.”
Because of its distinctive leaning shape and long history, Al‑Hadba became one of Mosul’s most recognizable landmarks. It had even appeared on the Iraqi 10,000‑dinar banknote.

During the occupation of Mosul by ISIS, Al‑Hadba and Al‑Nuri Mosque remained — but after a long and destructive battle to retake the city, the minaret was destroyed. In June 2017, as Iraqi forces closed in, IS militants reportedly planted explosives at the site before withdrawing and blew up the mosque and the minaret.
The destruction of Al‑Hadba was seen as a national tragedy: after roughly 850 years, this symbol of the city — its “hunchback” — was reduced to rubble.

Starting in 2022, a major reconstruction project led by UNESCO, supported by Iraqi authorities and international partners, began rebuilding Al‑Hadba.
The rebuilding used traditional bricks — as much as possible salvaged from the original structure — and preserved the minaret’s distinctive lean.
By early 2025, the work was completed. The new minaret is effectively a faithful replica of the old one, restoring one of Mosul’s most iconic landmarks.

11/23/2025

This is the Mosul Grand Mosque, a large Sunni mosque whose construction originally began under Saddam Hussein—earning it the nickname “Saddam Mosque.” Work stopped after the political upheaval that followed his rule, leaving the mosque unfinished. It suffered further damage during the 2017 Battle of Mosul. In 2019, the Nineveh Governorate announced plans to resume construction with support from a UAE grant.

11/22/2025

In the Old City of Mosul, every stone holds a memory, and every narrow street carries the echo of a thousand years of life, loss, and resilience...

03/08/2025

Happy international women’s day

05/11/2024

Starting as early as the 6th millennium BC, the fertile alluvial plains between Iraq’s Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, referred to as Mesopotamia, gave rise to some of the world’s earliest cities, civilizations, and empires in Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria.
Mesopotamia was a “Cradle of Civilisation” that saw the inventions of a writing system, mathematics, timekeeping, a calendar, astrology, and a law code.
Following the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia, Baghdad became the capital and the largest city of the Abbasid Caliphate, and during the Islamic Golden Age, the city evolved into a significant cultural and intellectual center, and garnered a worldwide reputation for its academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom.
The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258 during the siege of Baghdad, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires.

11/10/2023

Uruk was one of the most important cities in ancient Mesopotamia. According to the Sumerian King List, it was founded by King Enmerkar c. 4500 BC. Uruk is best known as the birthplace of writing c.
3200 BC as well as for its architecture and other cultural innovations. It is considered the first true city in the world. It was, in fact, a Mega-City for the era with a peak population of 80,000.

11/08/2023

Lalish is the holiest temple of the Yazidis. It is the location of the tomb of the Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, a central figure of the Yazidi faith.

The Lalish valley was annexed in 1892 by the surrounding Muslim tribes under the leadership of Ottomans, the mausoleum of Yezidi saints were looted and damaged and the Lalish Temple was converted into a Quranic school. The occupation of the temple eventually led to a fierce and widespread rebellion by Yezidis of Shekhan and Shingal against the Ottomans and the neighbouring Muslim Kurdish tribes. It was not until 1904 that the Ezidis, under the leadership of Mîr Alî Beg, succeeded in forcibly recovering their temple and driving out the Muslims.

04/07/2023