Iraq: An Illustrated History

Iraq's contemporary image provides few clues to the magnificence and power of her past. Known as Mesopotamia ("land between the two rivers"), Iraq, which lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was probably the earliest center of human civilization. Here emerged the earliest scripts, the earliest architecture, and the earliest sciences. But Mesopotamia has always been in upheaval, down to the present day. The past hundred years have progressively closed to western access the land of ancient Mesopotamia. Yet Gilles Munier has been able to travel extensively in this war-torn country, and he brings a refreshingly compassionate vision of the land that was once the cradle of humanity. A sumptuously illustrated and impeccably documented history of the country whose borders include the ruins of ancient Nineveh, Chaldea (Abraham's birthplace), Babylon, and Samara. Embark upon a voyage of discovery to the place where writing was first invented, to the city that was the center of the Arab Golden Age.