Surrounded by desert, Ur’s main attraction, the Ziggurat, stood out on approach.

We had a special guest join us for lunch and the boat ride. Sylvie introduced us to Jassim Al-Asadi, author of “The Ghosts of Iraq’s Marshes”.

We were told there are about 150 shenashils but funding can only restore a small portion of them. It must have been a beautiful area in its day.

The first stop was the Basra Museum which was housed in a former palace of Saddam Hussein (it is rumored he had 100 palaces around the country).

My Husband were on a 12-day tour of Iraq. Along with 8 other travelers and 2 guides, we would be visiting Basra, the Marshlands, ancient cities like Ur and Babylon, Najaf, Karbala, Ctesiphon, Baghdad, and Samara with their mosques and shrines.

My husband, Fred, and I had a 24-hour layover in Dubai between our trips to India and Iraq. Having arrived in Dubai about noon on Sunday, November 30th, we checked into our hotel and then decided to explore the Dubai Mall and surrounding area. We had pre-booked a couple of tours offered by Emirates Airlines – a city tour and a desert adventure. Our tours were scheduled for the next day,