Located up north on the east bank of the Tigris River, a bit under a six-hour drive from Baghdad, al-Mawṣil is ancient indeed - its origins stretch back at least 8,000 years, as part of the powerful Assyrian empire, and it was here that the legendary city of Nineveh - in its day the world´s largest - stood. Devastated by the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, then in 2014 three years of brutal oppression by the fanatical Islamic State/ISIS/Daesh, followed the 2017 Battle of Mosul in which it was liberated by the Iraqi government, the city has been rebuilding ever since, and now is again fairly prosperous, an industrial hub with a population of 1.8 million.
Major sights not to miss include the atmospheric medieval old quarter with its narrow alleyways; the Great Mosque (a grandiose, hulking bit of business which as you can see in this photo dominates the skyline, built during the Saddam Hussein years but never quite finished, and with restarted construction still underway to this day); the ruins of ancient Nineveh; the Mosul Museum, a trove of treasures from this region stretching back to the ancient Assyrian, Mesopotamian, and Roman eras; the Assyrian Market, where many locals come to buy and traders offer local handicrafts, clothing, and more; the 12th-century Bash Tapia Castle; the ruins of the 13th-century Qara Saray royal palace; and even several medieval Christian churches such as 9th-century Shamoun Al-Safa, 10th-century Mar Petion and Mar Ahudeni, and 19th-century Al-Tahera,
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