Iraq's Heritage Battered by Desert Sun, Rain and State Apathy

Iraq is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the UN - AFP
Iraq is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the UN - AFP
TT
20

Iraq's Heritage Battered by Desert Sun, Rain and State Apathy

Iraq is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the UN - AFP
Iraq is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the UN - AFP

One of the world's oldest churches is crumbling deep in Iraq's desert, another victim of years of conflict, government negligence and climate change in a country with a rich heritage.

After Pope Francis made a historic visit to Iraq in March, many Iraqis hoped that busloads of tourists would flock to Al Aqiser church southwest of the capital Baghdad.

But in a country that has been battered by consecutive conflicts and economic crises, the church -- like Iraq's numerous Christian, Islamic and Mesopotamian relics -- has been left to weather away, AFP reported.

All that remains of Al Aqiser, which has stood in Ain Tamr for more than 1,500 years, are crumbling brick and red earthen walls.

Archaeologist Zahd Muhammad blamed this on "climate conditions, the fact that under Saddam Hussein the area was transformed into a military firing range and the lack of regular conservation".

Ain Tamr mayor Raed Fadhel said upkeep is a question of budget.

"Such maintenance requires an enormous amount of money, but we only get meager funds" from the federal government, he said.

Abdullah al-Jlihawi, who lives in Diwaniya province bordering Karbala, told AFP he believes that "foreigners care more about our heritage than we do".

"Until the 1980s, an American university led excavations here, there were plenty of job opportunities," he said.

"Our parents and grandparents worked on those sites, but all that stopped in the 1990s" with the international embargo against Saddam's regime.

Diwaniya's governor, Zuhair al-Shaalan, boasts of the province's more than 2,000 historic sites and sees in each a potential economic windfall.

But almost 20 years since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam's dictatorship, promising democracy and prosperity, Iraqis are still waiting to for an economic upturn.

Diwaniya is home to Nippur, the ancient Sumerian city and jewel of Iraq's glorious Mesopotamian past with its temples, libraries and palaces.

Seven thousand years ago Nippur, now in southern Iraq, was one of the main religious centers of the Akkadians and later the Babylonians.

Much of that site was looted after Saddam's fall from power by armed bandits and many others destroyed by militants who seized swathes of Iraq in 2014 until their defeat three years later.

"Investing in these sites would create jobs in our province, which is poor and has few investment opportunities," Shaalan said.

But there is another problem beyond renovation and preservation, Jlihawi said. If they came, "where would the tourists go?" he asked.

"There's nothing for them -- the roads haven't been paved since the 1980s, the electricity poles are from the 1970s," in a country with chronic shortages of electricity and water.

Energy-rich Iraq suffered due to a decline in world oil prices and has been struggling with rising prices, high unemployment and poverty, which doubled last year to 40 percent amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Historical sites in the central province of Kirkuk are also in a sad state of disrepair and "neither authorities nor private organisations are doing anything for heritage", said resident Muhammad Taha.

He pointed to the 3,000-year-old citadel and the "qishla", an Ottoman-era garrison, where chunks of mosaics have crumbled while sections of wall threaten to crash down.

Like Nippur, the citadel's deterioration could mean it might not be promoted from UNESCO's Tentative List of heritage sites to the coveted World Heritage List.

Local authorities said frequent heavy rains that batter the mountainous region are to blame.

Iraq is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the United Nations.

Galloping desertification in a country where desert already covers 50 percent of the territory is threatening human and animal life, and has sounded death knells for Mesopotamian sites as well as recent constructions.

Abdullah al-Jlihawi from Diwaniya recalled that between the 1960s and the 1980s archaeological ruins "were protected by the green belt".

But trees that had blocked the wind were burned, blasted apart by shelling during successive Iraqi wars or felled to make way for new towns.

Scorching summer temperates above 50 degrees (122 Fahrenheit), dust storms and heavy winter rains have also dealt blows to Iraqi heritage.

And many fear that sites built with bricks made thousands of years ago by Mesopotamian laborers will one day soon turn back into dust.



'Retro Park' Revives 80s and 90s Gaming Nostalgia at the Esports World Cup 2025

The video game industry has undergone rapid evolution over the past decades. (SPA)
The video game industry has undergone rapid evolution over the past decades. (SPA)
TT
20

'Retro Park' Revives 80s and 90s Gaming Nostalgia at the Esports World Cup 2025

The video game industry has undergone rapid evolution over the past decades. (SPA)
The video game industry has undergone rapid evolution over the past decades. (SPA)

The video game industry has undergone rapid evolution over the past decades, with various devices and platforms shaping the features of successive generations, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.

In this context, the Retro Park pavilion drew large crowds at the Esports World Cup 2025, currently taking place at Boulevard Riyadh City. It offers an interactive journey through the world of classic video games, inspired by the 1980s and 1990s, continuing through the 2000s to the present day, starting with the 1972 "Odyssey," the world's first home gaming console, and culminating in today's virtual reality technologies.

In the 1970s, specifically in 1977, the Atari video game console gained prominence with its iconic game Pac-Man. In 1983, the Arab world saw the launch of its first Arabic-localized home gaming console, known as Sakhr, alongside the release of the Family game console, fondly remembered by a generation for the classic game Mario.

In the early 1990s, the Super Nintendo console emerged, accompanied by the release of Super Mario World in 1993. Arcade machines also became popular in gaming halls before many of their titles transitioned to home consoles.

A significant turning point occurred in 1996 with the launch of the PlayStation by Sony, which gained widespread popularity due to its hit game, Crash. The decade concluded with the release of the Sega Dreamcast video game console.

In the 2000s, home gaming advanced significantly with the release of the PlayStation 2 and 3, alongside popular games such as Ratchet & Clank and Black Ops. Moreover, Nintendo launched the highly successful Wii, while handheld consoles from Nintendo and PlayStation also gained traction. The emergence of YouTube in 2005 paved the way for "Let's Play" content and gaming-related media.

In the second decade of the millennium, video games continued to evolve with the rise of motion-based games such as Just Dance, while meme culture and reaction content spread among gamers and internet users, becoming part of their digital memory.

In 2020, virtual reality (VR) technology gained significant prominence through the use of VR headsets, elevating the gaming experience to unprecedented levels and becoming a key part of the industry's global future.

The Saudi scene is an active part of this evolution, with the Kingdom witnessing significant growth in the number of players and content creators, in line with the Saudi Vision 2030, which places strong emphasis on the gaming sector as part of digital transformation and youth empowerment.