From biblical Ur to the Marsh Arabs life today.

It was fantastic to see the biblical remains of Ur, where Abraham was supposed to come from, and then to visit the Arabs living in the Marshes. This post will be split between two very different experiences. Even though we can see this ancient site, nothing remains of Ur’s original city except the Great Ziggurat of Ur. The next stop was in the Marshes, where we slept the local way, spent the following day on the water, and learned how they lived.

The Great Ziggurat of Ur

After visiting Karbala the previous day on our tour around Iraq and Kurdistan, we arrived in Ur just before sunset. This colossal brick building loomed before us—The Great Ziggurat of Ur. A ziggurat is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It is a terraced compound of successively receding stories or levels. The Sumerians believed the gods lived in the temple at the top of the ziggurats, so only priests and other highly respected individuals could enter. Sumerian society offered these individuals such gifts as music, harvested produce, and the creation of holy statues to entice them to live in the temple.

The grandeur is overwhelming.

Knowing that the legend says Abram came from this place and may have seen this same building makes you wonder. Even if one does not believe in the actual stories, he is the forefather of three of the more prominent religions of the world. So, one should have some respect for the impact this site and the city of Ur have on Western society. Earlier, walking up the wast staircase in the middle was possible, but it is not possible now because of the need for maintenance work. This will, after all, be a place I will remember for life.

To the Marshes

The Mesopotamian Marshes, also known as the Iraqi Marshes, are a wetland area in southern Iraq and southwestern Iran. This unique wetland landscape is home to the Mars people, who have developed a distinctive culture tightly coupled to the landscape—harvesting reeds and rice, fishing, and herding water buffalo. After we had left Ur, we stopped in a nice restaurant for dinner and celebrated our guide’s birthday with a cake. There had been some mix-up with the hotel we were supposed to stay in, so the option was to drive for two hours to another hotel or sleep in a local guesthouse.

We voted on where to spend the night, and the guesthouse won. It was not the most comfortable place, but we got a few hours of rest before we went on the water and were taken to where we would have breakfast. The air and surroundings were so different from everything we had experienced so far in Iraq. After endless stretches of desert, we were stranded with water and water reeds.

Saddams attempted to evict the Marsians.

After the 1991 Gulf War, Shia Muslims in southern Iraq rebelled against Saddam Hussein, who in turn crushed the rebellion and further accelerated the draining of the Central and Hammar marshes to evict Shias that had taken refuge in the marshes. By the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the marshes had lost 90% of their size from the previous decades. After the invasion, locals destroyed dikes. The combined efforts of the Iraqi government, the United Nations, and the U.S. helped begin a restoration of the marshes.

Leisure time on the water

We started the trip on the water very early, so the temperature was very comfortable, and there were still long shadows. The breakfast was traditional Iraqi, with bread dipped in cheesy yoghurt and honey. The yoghurt was made from their buffalo milk and, of course, tea. The serving was simple but still enjoyable. Here, we got some information about their lives and traditions.

Erecting houses by reeds.

Their tradition of using their material on hand reminds me of the Uros people on the Titicaca Lake in Peru, where I was in 2023. They both have the tradition of building houses with the reeds growing in the water. The main difference is that their altitude is 3800 meters in Peru, so the temperature goes below zero at night and gets cold. The night stays warm here in Iraq, which is a big difference. But still, the buildings are very similar.

Conclusion

I know that the people who hosted us, took us around to their cabins, and took us on the boat are doing this as a tourist experience. But they live elementary lives. They fish and grow what grows in this environment and keep their buffaloes. In this way, they can make a bit of money. They seem very welcoming and give us an authentic experience of their lifestyle. The head of the family, who also told us he had 15 children, sang some songs for us in their language, which differed from traditional Arabic—life memories.