Asia

[Visited: December 2021]

It seemed so simple: visit the ruins of the ziggurat of Dur-Kurigalzu on our way back from Samarra. In fact, you come pretty close to the place. But bad timing on the part of guide and driver meant that we had to skip it on our first attempt. The second one was two days later, when we leave early and, to my surprise, don't see much traffic on the way. Alas, the driver makes more mistakes, the worst one missing the turnoff for the ruins. Trying to correct his mistake, he drives a small road, but this turns out to be blocked. At this point, I am so fed up with all the mistakes of the driver, that I decide to walk. According to my phone, it is a mere 12km: a two-hour walk in the crisp winter morning. My guide tries to keep up with my pace, and after a few kilometres, a soldier at a checkpoint urges me to stop.
Stop I do, and so does my guide. However, it turns out the driver is not too far behind us, and for some reason, he doesn't immediately follow the instructions of the soldier who, in turn, freaks out. He loads his Kalashnikov, points it at the driver, and then at me. He forces us against a concrete wall, with our arms and legs spread. Someone else takes my bag, empties it on the hood of the car, and apart from being furious at the driver, I am now angry at the soldier, too, as I fear for my camera equipment. I manage to stay calm (after all, the soldier is still pointing his loaded machine gun at us), and after showing our documents, talking for an hour, and making phone calls, the soldiers apologise and sens us off. I promise myself I will never use the car and its driver again, but for the moment, I have no choice. The ziggurat is, in fact, visible from the checkpoint, and doesn't seem very far. To my astonishment, neither the driver nor the guide know the way, and it costs us considerable additional time to find the ziggurat. My navigation app turns out to be useless as well, but: we eventually make it. Next obstacle: I am to pay the full 25.000 dinar entrance fee, but am not allowed to take pictures. After some negotiating and more phone calls, the compromise is that I can take five photos, and an official comes with us to check on me.
We finally walk to the ziggurat, which seems higher the closer we come. The lower part has been reconstructed, also necessary to support the higher part of the 14th century BCE temple. Kassite king Kurigalzu founded this city, which served as the Babylonian capital for some time in the 12th century - BCE. As with all empires and kingdoms, the city lost importance, degraded, and was finally abandoned. Later on, small settlements were erected here, and it became to be known as Aqar Quf. Later on, the ziggurat was a beacon for travellers indicating they were getting close to Baghdad. When we are finally on the platform of the upper part of the ziggurat, it becomes clear how much time, erosion, rain and other elements have eaten away at the poor tower. The core of the structure is made of sun-dried bricks, while the outer parts are made of fired bricks. The structure looks solid, but my guide tells me that there is in fact a way to get to a secret door in the top of the ancient temple. No one has ever been there, as far as is known, if only for the simple fact that climbing the ziggurat is impossible. On the east side of the enormous structure, we see the outlines of temples - photography strictly prohibited. We walk through the labyrinthine walls, where I am shocked to see lots of plastic waste - even here. Photography forbidden, but thrash is fine? The reconstructed temples for some reason don't look real, and when we walk past the ziggurat (I have long since taken my fifth picture) it is clear that this is the protagonist of Aqar Quf. I can only hope that any reconstruction efforts will respect the ancient structure and leave it as intact as possible.

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Dur Kurigalzu Ziggurat (Iraq)

Dur Kurigalzu Ziggurat > Iraq > Asia

[Visited: December 2021]

Around the World in 80 Clicks