This should have been split into two WHS: one for the sites of the Ancient Sumerian civilization, one for the “New” Marshes. ICOMOS and IUCN suggested to do so and saw OUV in both, but inscription was rushed through and now we’re stuck with a messy inscription and an unrecognizable site name. 

I will focus my review on the Marshes and not on the archaeological sites. These Marshes are the so-called “New Marshes”, which originated about 3,000 years ago when the original marshes near the Sumerian cities dried out and the coastline moved south-east. They have been recognized because of their bird life and the connection to the life of the Marsh Arabs, whose traditional lifestyle was immortalized in the book by Wilfred Thesiger. A visit was included in my tour, but I wondered beforehand whether we would end up at the core zone or an area especially designed for tourists. 

Already in the city of Nassiraya the Marshes are signposted with the globally known brown road signs. We drove for 1 hour and 15 minutes to a place where they’ve built a reception area with boats for tourists and a few reed houses. It is near the shiny-silver Martyrs Monument in Chabaish, where at the entrance they even sport a full WHS plaque indicating the Central Marshes component. So core zone it definitely was! The Martyrs Monument commemorates the struggle of the Marsh Arabs against Saddam Hussein, who took a particular dislike to them as they actively rebelled against his regime, are Shia Muslims and led an independent lifestyle. The network of waterways suited itself for guerrilla-style battles, which prompted Saddam to the infamous Draining of the Marshes in the 1990s, meant to eradicate the lifestyle of the Marsh Arabs. 

After a short explanation about the life of the Marsh Arabs and a refreshment in the reed “welcome hut”, we went on for a 1.5h tour in narrow, low motorized boats through the Central Marshes. A police boat went ahead of us all the time. The area still has issues with its water levels (the Turkish dam near Diyarbakir is blamed), but it’s a refreshingly green and clean place by Iraqi standards. The people live off buffalo and some tourism, they usually don’t live on the reed islands anymore (they go home to modern comforts overnight). The marshes don’t produce many fish.

Along the channels, still plenty of reed huts are standing, some very pretty in design. We were told that it takes about 10 days to build one and they last for about 10 years. In the past, they added up to 4 layers of reed as a rain cover (now they just add a plastic tarp). We anchored at a reed island where 3 men were tending a couple of buffalo. These huge and ill-tempered beasts are expensive and mostly kept to produce milk. 

The boat ride also produced several birds standing on the banks (lapwings, egrets, kingfishers), although the boatmen did not seem to care for them much and certainly weren’t deemed worthy enough for a stop. It’s not hard to imagine, though, that the birds will be happy that these marshes still exist in an otherwise desperately dry region.