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Beautiful Country
Enormous deserts, vast river plains, magnificent high mountains, a tropical climate, historical cities, and delicious foods are all reason to visit Iraq. Despite the negatives put on this country it is still worth visiting if you enjoy great food, fun, and ancient ruins.
The country of Iraq, as everyone knows, has a bad reputation. One negative thought that comes to mind when seeing or hearing about Iraq might be its previous war between the United States. “Iraq war started with the bombing of Iraq’s capital city, Baghdad on 20 March 2003. It might be more accurate to say that the war began with the first Gulf War of 1991 when the US bombed and devastated Iraq’s vital facilities” (David Roberts). Another thing that could come to mind could be Iraq’s older dictator Saddam Hussein who took power in 1979 until about 2003 when he died. However, American troops worked hard to improve the havoc there. Tourism there is protected by both U.S. troops and Iraqi police.
I’m sure you’d love to party-it-out and go crazy in all-night clubs in a different country, but who needs clubs when you’ve got plenty in your own country? Instead of trying to party you could spend your time exploring Iraq’s marvelous and bizarre cities and artifacts. Being once referred to as Mesopotamia, the world’s oldest civilization, Iraq is the center of the ancient world. Places like Babylon, (shown in fig.1), which dating back to 2300 BC was a political and religious center for ancient empires, or even Abril, which is “believed to be the world’s oldest continuously inhabited settlement, dating back 7,000 years or more” according to UNESCO.
Iraq's Native Foods
While visiting these cities/towns you’ll definitely spark-up an appetite. Don’t worry Iraq is filled with wonderful markets and restaurants to visit. A few foods to try native to Iraq are: Dolma, shown in fig. 2, (a mixture of vine leaves, cabbage, lettuce, onions, aubergine, marrow or cucumbers stuffed with rice, meat and spices). Tikka, (small chunks of mutton on skewers grilled on a charcoal fire). Quozi (a small lamb boiled whole and grilled, stuffed with rice, minced meat and spices and served on rice) and masgouf containing (fish from the Tigris River, cooked on the river bank).
great places to see and visit
Travel Iraq Today