The West Hammar Marshes and Uruk Archaeological City

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. The West Hammar Marshes

   The marshes of southern Iraq lie where the Tigris and Euphrates come together on their way to the Gulf, a vast network of reed beds, lagoons and channels that was, until recent decades, home to one of the oldest ways of life on earth. The West Hammar Marshes are the westernmost, south of the city of Nasiriyah, and this stop lies about fifteen kilometres from the small town of Al Fuhud. UNESCO inscribed the Ahwar of Southern Iraq in 2016, along with the ancient Sumerian cities of Ur, Uruk and Eridu, which stood on the edge of this same wetland.

   Read the complete The West Hammar Marshes write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The West Hammar Marshes is where the day begins. Next is Ur Archaeological City.

2. 2. Ur Archaeological City

   Ur stands on the flat Mesopotamian plain in southern Iraq, close to Nasiriyah, among the oldest cities in the world. Its great ziggurat, a stepped brick platform built by King Ur-Nammu around 2100 BC, still rises out of the desert, restored and shaped like a huge brick wedding cake with stairs up the front. It was a temple to the moon god Nanna, and the city around it was a major port on what was then the Euphrates, before the river shifted course and the sea retreated. Tradition names Ur as the birthplace of Abraham, which is why Pope Francis held a prayer meeting here in 2021.

   Read the complete Ur Archaeological City write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ur Archaeological City comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Uruk Archaeological City.

3. 3. Uruk Archaeological City

   Uruk is where the story of the city begins. Around 3500 BC, on the Euphrates plain in what is now southern Iraq, a settlement grew into a place of tens of thousands of people, with temples, workshops and a priestly administration, and within a few hundred years the people of Uruk had invented writing. The earliest clay tablets, pressed with simple signs for grain, beer and sheep, come from here, and cuneiform grew out of them. The city was also the home, in legend, of Gilgamesh, a king said to have built its walls, which ran for some nine kilometres and which the epic that bears his name describes with pride.

   Read the complete Uruk Archaeological City write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 161 km into the recorded legs you reach Uruk Archaeological City. Next is back through Ur Archaeological City.

4. 4. back through Ur Archaeological City

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ur Archaeological City write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Ur Archaeological City, late in the day. Next is The West Hammar Marshes.

5. 5. The West Hammar Marshes

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The West Hammar Marshes write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at The West Hammar Marshes. That is the ride.