Again at quarter to five, we were woken by the noise of balloons getting filled up, this time even closer. Many were starting next to us, floating into the Love Valley with its fantastic fairy chimneys, before they made their way further to Göreme. More and more people started to come there, taking their pictures …
At Göreme, we visited another open air museum with churches. The entrance fee of 20 Euros, with another 6 Euros when you want to visit the “Dark Church” with the best frescos, felt a bit like a rip-off. We had a lovely lunch in a small pide restaurant in Cavusin, away from the more touristic …
Coming from Iraq, we made our way to Cappadocia, with a couple of stops. In Mardin we had our washing done and enjoyed some local food before we continued. We came through the region where pistachio trees grow, and crossed the Euphrates a last time on our way westwards. In Kahramanmaras, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake had …
On the way to Baghdad, we visited Taq Kisra, the remains of a palace of another ancient city, dated to the 3rd or 6th century AD, which was really spectacular. We had to circle the building until we got the perfect view of the remarkable high arch. It was the facade of the main palace …
The many checkpoints continued on the way north to the city of Babylon or the few remains which you can visit today. In Babylon stood once the famous Tower of Babel, which probably looked more like a Ziggurat than how it is depicted in the Western world since ancient times. Today there is just the …
The most important places for Muslims are Mecca and Medina, which you can’t visit as a non-believer. The third site on that list is the Shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf. Ali was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from 656 to 661, as well as the …
We wanted to visit the remains of an ancient city called Ur, but first we came to the Mesopotamian Marshes on the floodplains of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The unique wetland landscape is home to the Marsh people, who have developed a unique culture tightly connected to the landscape – harvesting reeds and rice, fishing and herding water buffalo. …
After a couple of days in wealthy Kuwait, we were prepared to cross the border to Iraq. We needed a special “green” paper to leave Kuwait to Iraq, which we had obtained at the airport. When entering in Kuwait, we had used the Carnet de Passage, but when we wanted to leave the country, they …
With Kuwait, we had reached another of the “rich through oil”-Emirates of the Arabian Peninsula. 1.5 million of Kuwaitis live together with 3.5 million of foreigners, mostly in the capital, Kuwait City. Once a trading hub in the south of Mesopotamia, Kuwait now exploits its oil reserves. The tower on the right is 187 metres …
We could have taken the shorter route from Jordan directly to Iraq, accompanied by a military convoy. Instead, we decided to take the route through Saudi Arabia to Kuwait and from there to Iraq. This way we avoided the convoy through a dangerous region of Iraq, can visit Kuwait and explore the south of Iraq. …
