Not much of the Assyrian grandeur remains in Mosul
Mosul was where IS had its headquarters during the last war in Iraq. Today, the people are trying to get back to everyday life. Mosul is the second largest city in Iraq. Due to its strategic location, it has traditionally served as a hub of international commerce and travel. Mosul also encloses the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineve—once the largest city in the world. Today, large parts of the city are in ruins.
Still, there are bodies under the rubble.
It gives you a different perspective when you walk street up and street down, with all the houses around you, ruins and rubble. When our guide says that bodies are bedded under layers and debris, it makes you think. It must be such a burden for relatives to know that deep down, there may be some of your loved ones buried. It is a good thing to know that they are now dead, but the thoughts of how long they might have suffered before they eventually died must be a terrible thing to come over.
Battle of Mosul
An international coalition was formed in the battle of Mosul in 2016-2017. It was during this time that all the damage was done. Safe is written by every door when you go through the streets, so the coalition went from house to house to look for IS and wrote this on the walls. Today, it is just a ghost town. You can see walls inside houses that have been children’s bedrooms. I know this is nothing unique for Mosul; it has been a reality in so many places worldwide. You feel it so much more when you walk in between the rubble.
Honour to UNESCO
After the USA’s invasion in 2003, President Bush appointed L. Bremer to be in charge of getting a new government up and running in Iraq. This was difficult since the country had no opposition politicians for years. This led to several years of civil war. However, the USA had granted a large amount of funds to rebuild Iraq after the damages they had caused. However, all the contracts for rebuilding infrastructure, like roads, bridges, etc., were given to Bremer’s friends in the USA and not to local companies or builders. Today, UNESCO has taken on the rebuilding of Mosul by training local people to rebuild their city and country again.
A Christian community
In the heart of Mosul, there was a quarter where several churches were built close to each other, including Al Tahera Church, a Syriac Catholic church, an Armenian Apostolic Church, and others. IS damaged several religious buildings between 2014 and 2016, not only churches. Today, UNESCO is in charge of rebuilding all these churches, with funding from Saudi Arabia and others.
The high spirit of the locals
We visited a small museum with stands of local dresses from several places in Iraq. They also had some costumes we could try on and take pictures. The locals thought this was more fun than we did, but never mind. After that, we were invited into the next-door art cafe. Here, we were served tea, and a local musician played drums for us and sang local songs. Here, we could see how little it took to make everyone in the cafe smile and clap along. That would never have happened where I come from. Then they asked us to sing something for them. Since we were a very international group, we had no familiar song to sing. However, the Portuguese couple sang a folk song, and I sang a well-received little thing. It was a perfect end to a long, eventful day.
Mosul Grand Mosque
On our way out of Mosul, we passed this Mosque by bus. Its construction started during Saddam Hussein’s rule, but work was interrupted because of the country’s political instability, and it remains incomplete. The question is if it will be called Saddam Mosque in the future. Even if we had seen devastating damages and heard terrible stories of how the people had suffered in this city, we saw some hope for a better future.
