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Tour in Central Governorates
BAGHDAD:
GENERAL: In Iraq, all roads lead to the capital Baghdad. A city built in 762
A.D. by Abbasid caliph Abu Jafar Al mansour. There is so much to see in
Baghdad in addition to natural, historical, and religious sites. Divided by
the Tigris into two halves, Rusafa and Karkh, which are connected by several
modern bridges. In Rusafa, Rasheed street is Baghdad’s most distinguished
and most popular street, stretching from North gate (Bab al Mua’dham) to the
South gate( Bab al Sharji). It is still very much the center of trade in
Baghdad. In Karkh you will find the British style International Railway
Station.
Baghdad is a combination of all that is best in the old and new. Multi-story
buildings often tower over ancient arcaded bazaars overflowing with
fantastic things. Motley of colors, races, costumes, and ways of life gives
the city an air of vitality and excitement. European dress rubs shoulder
with Arab costumes, blue jeans with ornate Kurdish clothes.
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Bazaars & places of interest:
You want a souvenir of your visit to Iraq?
Baghdad’s famous souqs and bazaars have a variety of lovely oriental
objects. You will find them mostly just off Rasheed street.
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Coppersmith market:
 One of the most interesting places is the Coppersmith Souq, where copper is still beaten in the old traditional way into pots and
pitchers of all shapes and sizes. The noise is great and so is the sight.
Shops spill over with copperware for household or decorative uses, to suit
all tastes. Primitive, austere, elaborate, highly ornate, take your pick.
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River Street & Al-bazazeen, Shorjah & other markets: Further on from
coppersmith souq, you will come to one specialized souq after another in a
labyrinth of arcades. Don’t miss the Clothiers souq for a delightful sight
of yards and yards of colorful material unfurled in beautiful arrangements,
or the Rugs souq where hand woven rugs in striking local motifs and colors
are on magnificent display. Nearby, on the other side of Rasheed Street, is
the so-called “Shorjah”, one of the most important trade centers of the
city. Chock-full of household wares, the place is aromatic with the smell of
coffee, tea, spices and soap, and bustles with movement and noise.
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Arab market: is considered as an adjacent to Shorjah. Off Rasheed Street
again, along the river, is Mustansir street, a woman’s paradise for clothes,
shoes, handbags, and cosmetics. At one end of it you will find the
traditional gold and silversmiths known for centuries for their lovely
jewelry.
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Souq Al-ghazil: is a Friday pet-market. The name was given after the
famous mosque and its minaret. In this market you can buy all kinds of birds
and animals.
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Saddam art center: The building is a piece of art by itself. It is
situated in the Karkh side of Baghdad. The doorways of the center are
guarded by two winged bulls. It exhibits a selection of work of famous
Iraqi, Arabs, and foreigner’s artists.
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AL- Mazgouf fish at Abu nuwas street: A beautiful river drive, stretching
a long way by the Tigris between Jumhouriya Bridge and the 14th July
Suspended Bridge. The street was called after the famous Abbasid poet who
was a daring bon vivant and a boon companion of the caliph Haroun Al Rasheed,
when Baghdad was at the peak of its glory. Further down, by the river-boats
mooring place, there is a monument of Shahrazad relating her Arabian Nights
tales to King Shahrayar (made in 1975 by Mohammad Ghani a famous Iraqi
sculpture). This street has ever remained reminiscent of our delightful
poet: thousands of people every night crowd the cafés, bars and “casinos”that
dot the river bank all the way down. Perhaps one of its loveliest sights is
the series of little circular fires along the river on which ‘MAZGOUF FISH”
is grilled in an ancient way peculiar to Baghdad. A number of fishes are
taken alive out of water, killed, gutted and transfixed on wooden pegs in a
circle around a tamarisk wood fire. They are finally spiced and served with
pickles and vegetables, a fabulous Baghdadi dish.
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The National Theatre: The 1000 seat National Theatre in Fatih square is
one of the most modern and best equipped theatre in the Arab world. It has a
15 meter diameter revolving stage, and has two halls fitted for cinematic
projection. Plays, concerts, musical evenings and film shows are regularly
presented in it.
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Baghdad international fair: This huge international fair used to be held
every year from 1st – 14th October, when a large number of industrial,
agricultural, and commercial companies and firms from all over the world
meet in one large event. It also provides excellent opportunities to all
foreigners participants to familiarize themselves with Iraqi industrial,
agricultural, and commercial markets.
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The Iraq Museum: Museum square, Karkh. Few countries in the
world are as rich in archaeology as Iraq. The Iraq Museum, with its great
well-organized and carefully labeled collection of archaeological finds is a
reflection of this richness. A record of the many peoples and cultures which
flourished in Mesopotamia from time immemorial up to the centuries of the
Arab empire, the museum offers a vivid display of pre-historic remains, of
the civilizations and arts of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians,
Assyrians, Chaldeans, Seleucids, Parthians, Sasanians, and Abbassians. The
display halls are chronologically arranged in this order. For the benefit of
scholars, the museum has a rich multilingual library, which adds to the
prestige of the Iraq Museum as one of the best in the world of Mesopotamian
studies.
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Museum of national costumes and folklore: Located in Rasheed
Street, on the eastern bank of the Tigris. Apart from the culiarly national
character of the exhibits, the Museum’s building is in an original Baghdad
style of the architecture worth noting.
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The Baghdad museum: Located in Mamoun Street, near Shuhada
Bridge. Traditional professions and popular customs of Baghdad represented
in colorful life-size sculptures. Many of the professions and customs are
fast disappearing but they are still very interesting to see, even as
images. You will for instance see the old water-barer, the weaver, the
Zakariya fast ritual, the bridegroom’s ceremony, etc. A multilingual
liabrary on relevant subjects is also part of the museum. Paintings,
photographs, maps and other illustrative material depict aspects of the
city’s history, together with the portraits of famous men who once ruled the
city. It is administered by the capital’s mayoralty.
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The war museum: Located at Adhamiya, River-drive, Kasra. It
exhibits many examples of old weaponary and diversity of arms and military
equipment used by the Iraqi Army since its foundation, showing the stages of
its development.
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National museum of modern art: Located in Kifah Street, near
(Tayaran) Saba’wi Square. It is a complex of four
galleries, the largest of
which is devoted to Iraqi modern art, with a permanent collection of
paintings, sculptures and ceramics which is constantly being expanded. The
visitor can follow up history of the Iraqi modern art movement from its
earliest beginnings to the present. The other three galleries hold a large
number of collective and one-man shows all the year round.
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Museum of Iraqi pioneers: It lies next door to the Museum of
national costumes and folklore. Originally a house built in the old Baghdadi
style in 1909, it holds the numerous works of over 20 artists whose
paintings and drawings before 1949 laid the foundation of the modern Iraqi
art movement.
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Museum of natural history: This Museum has grown into a
Research Institute because its rich collection and library with more than
26000 books constitute an extraordinary basis of fundamental research.
DIYALA GOVERNORATE:
 Situated to the east of Baghdad, it is one of the governorates of central Iraq,
and is famed for its palm groves and fruit orchards, especially its citrus
trees. Arab historians in the old days mentioned it innumerable trees and
plentiful waters. The center of the Governorate is Baquba, some 66 kms, away
from Baghdad. This area is one of the most important in Iraq because of its
ancient culture. Many archaeological tells have been identified, indicating early
settlements that date back to the Al Ubaid period, about six thousand years ago,
the old Babylonian age, and the dawn dynasties. Our archaeological information
here was derived from the excavations conducted before World War 1. Further
information has come to us from the more recent extensive excavations conducted
at the start of the implementation of Himreen irrigation dam. The earlier digs
revealed temples and places in ancient cities such as Tell Asmar (ancient
Ishnunna), capital of the Ishnunna Kingdom, which flourished in the old
Babylonian era. Also discovered here was the Khafaji site (ancient Tutoup),
distinguished by its elliptical temple, about 15 kms, away from the old Diyala
bridge. Thousands of clay tablets and cylinder seals were found here, all
belonging to the Babylonian period and the age of the dawn of the dynasties.
Geographically and culturally important, the area kept its prominent position
throughout the various Islamic eras.
Throughout the administrative centers of Diyala governorate you will find many
privately owned hotels and casinos, together with tourist complexes, social
clubs, excursion gardens, children’s playgrounds sports fields, modern markets,
bookshops, public halls, cinemas and post offices.
ANBAR GOVERNORATE:
Situated near Baghdad Governorate, it is in central Iraq. It used to be called
“Dulaim Liwa”, after the famed Dulaim tribes which mostly lived in it, and later
it was called “Ramadi Liwa” after its main town, which is today the center of
the governorate. Ramadi itself is a comparatively recent city, built by the
Ottoman Wali of Baghdad Madhat Pasha (1869 – 1872). It is 105 kms north west of
Baghdad. The present name of the governorate belongs to the old historic town of
Anbar, 5 kms north of Faluja. Its unique ruins are still visible here and there,
some of them surrounded by an old mud-brick wall.
Anbar flourished in pre-Islamic times. The historian Amianus Marcellinus
referred to it in A.D. 363 as the second most important city in Iraq after
Ctesiphon. It acquired special significance in Islamic times when the Arab
Leader Sa’ad Bin Abi Waqqas built in it the third large mosque and later when
Abul Abbas Al saffah, founder of the Abbasid dynasty, made it his capital in
A.D. 752. Abu Ja’far Al mansour lived in it for some time before moving his
capital to Hashimiya, near Kufa, and thence to Baghdad after he had built it.
Other major towns in Anbar governorate are Faluja, Heet, Haditha and Ana.
Any one visits this governorate must pay a visit to Habaniya lake and tourist
village.
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