Welcome to Iraq
Iraq is a country with unmatched history in the history. When you visit Iraq, unlike any other country in the World, you feel, taste, and smell history. Its indeed the birthplace of Civilization 9000 years ago, where Age of Empires started, and where we, all of us, moved from prehistory to history.
In ancient times, Iraq's land area was almost equivalent to Mesopotamia, the land between the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates (Dejla and Furat in Arabic); which sweep down from the mountains of Turkey to meet, 136 km north of the Arabian Gulf, at one of the alleged sites of the Garden of Eden.
Sophisticated irrigation systems, first cereal agriculture, earliest writing (cuneiform), pass on complex techniques to successive generations, full syllabic alphabet, recording the commerce of the times in great depth, double entry accounting practices (used to this day as a standard for record keeping), private properties, the numeral 60 based math system (which is the basis of time in the modern world), banking, recording of literature (like the epic of Gilgamesh), early calendars, bureaucratic system of priesthood, the first wars fought, the earliest legal comprehensive code known in history (Hammurabi Code), the first wheel, the first seed plow, the first sailboat, the division of circle into 360 degrees, invention of longitude and latitude in geographical navigation, the first sophisticated medical science, algebraic equations and invention of zero, and much much more, were all founded and developed in Iraq, in historical order, giving witness to the greatness the country has known over the centuries in terms of human achievements.
Here, in Iraq, lived ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Cassites, and Chaldeans Here lived ancient Gudea, Ur-nammo, Sargon, Hammurabi, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar In Lagash, Babylon, Sumer, Eridu, Ur of the Chaldees, Subarum, Assur, Nineveh and Nimrud (Calah) Leaving behind the legendary Babylonia, the legendary Ziggurats, the legendary Hanging Gardens; one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World, and the countless other sites of Iraq's antiquity which outnumber those of the Valley of the Nile, Greece, or Rome.
And here lived Prophet Noah (pbuh), the 2nd father of people, in Fara 160 km southeast of Babylon, Prophet Abraham "Ibrahim Al-Khalil" (pbuh), the Father of all Prophets, in Ur, Prophet Azra "Auzayr" (pbuh), Prophet Hizkael "The El-Kifl" (pbuh), and Prophet Jonnah "Yonus" (pbuh) in Nineveh.
Among Islamic countries, Iraq enjoys a very important position, as it has been cradle of inspiration miracles and virtues throughout the history of Prophets, Imams, and self denying pious men.
There are many holy cities and sites in Iraq with a unique and distinguished heritage like Kerbala and Najaf as well as many important Islamic cities like Kufa, Samarra, and the capital Baghdad, which was once, the center of the Muslim glorious world.
Location:
Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Kuwait
Population:
20,643,769 (July 1995 est.)
Religions:
Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian or other 3%
Map references:
Middle East
Total area:
437,072 sq km
Land area:
432,162 sq km
Who are the Iraqis?
-Twelve thousand years ago, they invented irrigated farming.
-They got to be so good at it that, today, they can still produce all the food they need even when "sanctions" are imposed.
-They invented writing.
-They figured out how to tell time.
-They founded modern mathematics.
-In the Code of Hammurabi, they invented the first legal system that protects the weak, the widow and the orphan.
-Five thousand years ago, they had philosophers who attempted to list every known thing in the world.
-They were using Pythagoras' theorem 1,700 years before Pythagoras.
-They invented artificial building materials, some kind of pre-fab-crete stuff used to construct high-rise towers.
-Ur, in southeast Iraq, is assumed to be the place we're all descended from.
-They were the first people to build cities and live in them.
-For thousands of years, they wrote the greatest poetry, history and "sagas" in the world.
-Because they were great horse breeders, they invented the cavalry in war.
-The Iraq Museum in Baghdad contains some of the most outstanding stone, metal and clay sculptures and inscriptions created in the history of the world. -Some of them are more than 7,000 years old. If a bomb hits this place, art lovers around the world will go into mourning.
-The first school for astronomers was established by Iraqis. This is how the "wise men" got to be so wise. They knew how to follow the star.
-Beginning around 800 A.D., the Iraqis founded universities that imported teachers from throughout the civilized world to teach medicine, mathematics, philosophy, theology, literature and poetry.
-For the first 1,200 years of its existence, Baghdad was regarded as one of the most refined, civilized and festive cities in the world.
-Abraham, the father of Israel, was from Iraq.
-Abraham, the father of Islam, was from Iraq.
-Abraham, the father and "model" of Christian faith, was from Iraq
