The Marshes.

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Snapshoots from the Marshes
At the south Area size 150x150 km A white Mashhuf
The village of Saigal The village of Al-Qabab Mudhif in Chebaish
The samme person, the difference is 5000 years!
Sumerian man
Marsh arab
A unique world, where nature seems to preserve its virgin aspect. Miles and miels of water, with an endless variety of birds, fish, plantes and reeds and bullrushes, dotted as far as the eye can see with hunts, each a little island unto itself, eith slender mash-houfs shuttling back and forth through the reeds and flowers. This vast expanse of water is shared by three southern governorates: Thi Qar, Misan, and Basrah. Old Arabic books suggest that the Marshes were the aftermath of a devastating flood which took place around A.D. 620, but archaeological indications suggest that they were formed long before Sumerian times, when the Arabian Gulf waters began to recede southwards, leaving behind all those marshes alongside the Tigris and Euphrates.

An ancient Sumerian figure in the Iraqi Museum, Baghdad, and a Marsh Arab who lives today where Sumer once was.

People in the Marshes live in huts built from reeds and reeds mattings, with attractive designs that go back to ancient times.They look like hundreds of islands clustered together into small townships. Most prominent among them is Chebayish. In March and April the eather is pleasant, and the whole place is shot through with plants and flowers. Reeds may rise 20 feet high and papyrus, 10 feet.In the winter season water birds of all kinds migrate to the Marshes, which then becomes a hunters paradise. Fish, however, are always plentiful and the local inhabitants catch them with nets or spear them with a five-pronged fala,peculiar to the area.

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