In this post we drive from Karbala to Nasariyah via: Al Kifl, Al Najaf & Ur. In this post I also visit the two huge shrines in Karbala first thin in the morning instead of with the group late the night before as I wanted to get my first Iraqi post to you and I prefer to photograph monuments during the day.
Karbala (Pop 690,100, Elev 28m, First Settled 690BC) is a Holy City for the Shia Muslims in the same way as Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem for the other Islamic faiths. Tens of millions of Shi'ite Muslims visit the site twice a year, rivalling Mecca and Mashhad by the number of pilgrims annually. Shia come here to from all over the world to visit two very important shrines: The Al Abbas Shrine and The Imam Husayn Shrine. Both shrines are spaced 800m apart and simply blew my mind. Huge shimmering glass covered ceilings dripping with myriads of chandeliers lighting up coloured wall mosaic tiles and impeccable patterned coloured carpets. I visited 0630-0715 and both places were teeming with people of all ages. Men and women worship in separate spaces and I was surprised at the number of toddlers and teenagers present – all here for blessings. Filming and snapping both shrines in just 45min so I could make it back to the hotel on time for an 8am departure was the toughest assignment in my travels so far because I had to check in my sandals and cameras (mobiles allowed), walk around two huge floor plans and negotiate my way through crowds to decide what to shoot. Photography and filming are not allowed but not strictly enforced since many faithful were taking selfies and photographing each other inside. A local asked me to photograph me and when he found out I was from Australia he was surprised and moved and spoke to the guards about me taking footage – Islam smiled on me that morning – the footage may turn out to be the highlight of this trip. Finally I jogged back to the hotel to make the bus.
ABOUT THE SHRINES:
The Imam Husayn Shrine is the mosque and burial site of Husayn ibn Ali, the third Imam of Shia Islam, in the city of Karbala. It stands on the site of the Mausoleum of Husayn, who was a grandson of Muhammad, near the place where he embraced martyrdom during the Battle of Karbala in 680AD. The shrine is the size of 2 football fields but the inner sanctuary is much smaller.
The Al-Abbas Shrine is the mosque and mausoleum of Abbas ibn Ali who was Husayn's flag-bearer in the Battle of Karbala and chief of his caravans. The shrine was started in 680AD with the burial of Al-Abbas after he was killed in the Battle of Karbala and covered with a grand mosque in 1622AD. It is almost the same size as the Imam Husayn Shrine. It has undergone several renovations since to accommodate the many millions who come here, most walk here !!!
Al Kifl (Pop 22,800, Elev 35m) is a town in south-eastern Iraq on the Euphrates River, between Najaf and Al Hillah. Kifl is the location of Al-Nukhailah Mosque, containing the tomb of Dhul-Kifl who is believed be the biblical Prophet Ezekiel. A project to renovate the tomb and develop it as a tourist attraction has proven controversial. The town was once a significant Jewish pilgrimage site and home to a community of Iraqi Jews until the late 1940s. We visited the tomb which is in a small chapel that dates back to the 15th Century. Why is a Jewish Prophet buried in Iraq? It is written that the Prophet Ezekiel died in ancient Babylonia and was therefor buried here. Many Jews still live here and pretend to be Muslim to stay close to their revered Prophet.
Najaf (Pop 1,389,500, Elev 60m) is home to Wadi-Us-Salaam, the largest cemetery in the world !!! It is mainly the preferred resting place of Shia Muslims. There are over 6 million bodies in this cemetery covering 6 square kilometres !!! The graves are very small and crowded to enable more people to be buried here. Departed Muslims are washed and taken to their local Mosque for prayers and then buried – all in the space of 24 hours or less. Each grave is dug to a depth of 7m (25 ft) to enable up to 12 family members to be buried. Muslims do not practice the southern European tradition of digging up the departed several years later to wash the bones and place them in a small space or add them to the coffin of a newly buried family member which is the practice in Greece. Sadly we did not get to visit the hill that overlooks the cemetery or the Imam Ali House (the very spot where Imam Ali was killed) or the Imam Ali Shrine because the military did not give us permission because the Supreme Shia Leader was in town at the same time and is constantly under threat of attack. Instead we climbed on top of the bus to get some deeper shots of this enormous cemetery. The Imam Ali Shrine is just as important to the Shia as the Imam Husayn Shrine in that it contains the remains of the first cousin and brother-in-law of The Prophet Mohammad. Legend also says that the remains of Adam and Noah are deep in the ground under the Shrine ! Amazing.
Our next stop of Ur is a whopping 250km away, almost at the southern tip of the country only 200km from Kuwait. We made a brief stop for lunch at Abu Sukair which is right on the Euphrates.
The “Ziggurat of Ur” is a huge ancient temple in the form of a step-pyramid near the village of Ur and the town of Nasariyah (our overnight stay). The 2016 UNESCO protected ziggurat was built by Sumerian King Ur-Nammu in the 21st century BC. It 4 m (210 ft) long, 45 m (148 ft) wide and over 30 m (98 ft) high. The ziggurat was a piece in a temple complex that served as an administrative centre for the city, and which was a shrine of the moon god Nanna, the patron deity of Ur.
Nasariyah (Pop 558,400, Elev 38m, Est 1872) is only 15min? drive from the Ziggurat and was a welcomed site after such a long day. Nasiriyah is on the lower Euphrates, about 360 km (225 miles) south-southeast of Baghdad. It had a diverse population of Muslims, Mandaeans and Jews in the early 20th century but today its inhabitants are predominantly Shia Muslims. Nasiriyah is the centre of the date-growing area. The city's cottage industries include boat-building, carpentry and silver working. The city museum has a large collection of Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid artifacts. The Euphrates merges with the Tigris for the final time about 10 kilometres from the city where legend has it that the Garden of Eden (Paradise or Heaven) was located even though there are no tourist sites to say so. In any case this area is quite the opposite to Heaven with dry near 40C heat and nothing but flat yellow sandy desert.
My Heaven was back in the hotel in Nasariyah with a cold bottle of Lebanese dry white wine…
THE TOMB OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL
THE TOMB OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL
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