The Wandering Scot

An occasional travel journal.

Browsing Posts tagged Iraq

Baghdad: National Museum

Some sections of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad are now open. (More PHOTOS.) The star exhibit is a stunning collection of Assyrian works from Khorsabad, including two enormous larger-than-life carved scenes of courtiers bringing gifts to the King, two giant guardian Lamassu, a large statue of Nabu the god of Wisdom and Writing, and […]

Ancient Babylon Rebuilt!

At first glance the Babylon site is a strange Disneyland vision of what Babylon ought to look like, with impossibly pristine new brickwork and fanciful towers and ramparts.  Just as though some Wizard has cast a magical “rebuild” spell.  But much of this fanciful reconstruction is built on original foundations.  Our site guide pointed at […]

Uruk

The Uruk site is well organized, with large explanatory signs, a strong perimeter fence, and (wonder of wonders) an actual ticket office, which doubles as a guard post.  We were the only visitors of the day so it took a few minutes to round up the ticket seller. Uruk was the first great city, the […]

Ancient Ur

There are very few tourists in Iraq at the moment, so I was expecting the ancient city of Ur to be almost deserted.  But no, as we approached the great ziggurat, we saw about 40 tour buses parked and hordes of teenagers cavorting around the site.  Say what? It turns out it’s the last month […]