Ten reasons . . . to holiday in Iraq

[CVX]

Help out a war zone with your tourist cash.

By: Katie Melville

We all know that it is our moral duty to holiday in South-East Asia in order to mitigate the economic effects of the devastation wrought by the tsunami. However, if you are looking for a clean conscience, who wants to lie on a beach when you could be helping out a war zone? What I like to call developmental tourism is a principle that could apply not only to devastation by an Act of God, but acts of man.

Where capitalism goes, democracy is sure to follow. Since foreign investment is reserved only for FOTP – friends of the president – the easiest way to get money to ordinary Iraqis is to book your seat on the next plane to Baghdad and take in the sights and sounds of a country known as "the cradle of civilisation."

The spotlight of history has rarely wandered from Iraq: it is a country full of surprises, and I do not just mean the car bombs. Here are a few of the not-to-be-missed highlights between the Euphrates and the Tigris. They do not call themselves the Party of the Two Rivers for nothing, you know.

1. Before you go

Check out some regional history online. Over the years, Iraq has gone by many names. It has been part of Sumeria, Nimrod's Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonia, Darius' Persia, Saladin's Mesopotamia, and the Abbasid Empire.

However, in order to take its place as a developed nation among equals, what do Iraqis really want? 24 hours a day of electricity? Control over their oil revenues? Well, yes, but they also want the internet country code '.iq' reinstated. The National Museum has a website where you can sign a petition: www.baghdadmuseum.org. After all, what is in a domain name?

2. When you get there

Make sure you bring lots of cash, because the fifteen-mile taxi ride from the airport to the city centre can cost up to £2,750. For that, you get two cars and four bodyguards. That is quadruple the price of the flight from London, and works out at £183 per mile, versus 26p per mile on the plane. When the Abbasids built Baghdad, they named it "The City of Peace." Just let the irony sink in for a second.

3. The Iraqi National Museum

Assuming you make it into the city without being kidnapped, this is a must for any culture vulture in the nation's capital – with vulture being the operative word after 10 April 2003, when the looting of priceless Middle Eastern artefacts started following the fall of Saddam's regime. According to the 24 July 2004 issue of the Iraqi Press Monitor, "looting the country's museum and antiquities was premeditated before the war and before the fall of the regime" by antiquities experts and museum personnel.

Initially, 50,000 items were estimated to be missing. However, since this included the card catalogue, that number was really just a guess. Interpol, the FBI, and an army of art historians have apparently since reclaimed many items through a combination of criminal investigation, scouring the black market and, presumably, e-bay.

4. Babylon: it is in the Bible. Twice.

Our tour takes us fifty miles south of Baghdad to the ruins of this glorious city, unearthed in the 19th century and home to the eponymous hanging gardens. Babylon is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Babel, so the city was also home to the biblical tower.

The most famous Babylonian Emperor, Nebuchadnezzar II, whose name is just so much fun to say, was the one who exiled the entire aristocratic elite and religious leadership from Judea, now Israel. See the psalms for details. See also Simon and Garfunkel. Saddam considered himself a latter-day Nebuchadnezzar, relocating fractious ethnic minorities left, right, centre, and often below ground in a box.

More: http://www.ak13.com/article.php?id=291