Samarra was, for about fifty years in the ninth century, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate, the empire that stretched from North Africa to Central Asia. Caliph al-Mutasim moved his court here from Baghdad in 836, partly to get his Turkish soldiers away from a restless city, and for half a century a vast new capital spread along the east bank of the Tigris. It was one of the largest cities of the medieval world, a sprawl of palaces, mosques, barracks, racecourses and pleasure gardens, and then it was abandoned, leaving ruins in the desert that are remarkably well preserved because nobody built over them.
The southern zone of the site includes the remains of palaces and gardens, among them the Qasr al-Ashiq, a square palace with courtyards and ornate stucco. Further north stands the great spiral minaret of the Malwiya, built of baked brick to a height of about fifty metres, which is the most famous image of Samarra. The brick, the stucco and the geometry give an idea of the splendour of the Abbasid court, and the site has been a World Heritage site since 2007.
I have to be honest about the riding. This is a part of Iraq where the security situation has been difficult for years, and Samarra suffered attacks in the past, including the bombing of the Askariya shrine in 2006. Anyone considering a visit needs current travel advice, local contacts and a lot of caution, and the idea of a casual motorcycle trip here is not realistic. The land itself is flat desert, brown and hot, with the Tigris cutting a green line through it.
Samarra town is large, with about a hundred and fifty thousand people, so fuel and food exist, but conditions can change quickly. If you do get to see the site, go in the cooler months between November and March, and take water, because summer temperatures are above forty-five degrees. Baghdad lies about a hundred and twenty kilometres south.