In The Marshes Of Iraq

In The Marshes Of Iraq

Written and photographed by Wilfred Thesiger
Amidst "the stillness of a world that never knew an engine... he found at last a life he longed to know and share.
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Reviving Eden

Reviving Eden

Written by Pat McDonnell Iwair
Photographed by Dana Smillie
Until the 1990s, the reed marshes of Iraq were Eurasia's most extensive wetlands, with a unique ecology that supported the Marsh Arabs' distinctive way of life. Then the marshes were drained and the people scattered. Azzam of Alwash, the emigré son of an Iraqi hydrologist, now works with international aid groups and Iraqi authorities to restore the desiccated marshlands. Reeds are sprouting, birds and fish are returning-and so are people. "A 7000-year-old culture doesn't die in a decade, he says.
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All the Lands Were Sea

All the Lands Were Sea

Photographed and Written by Tor Eigeland
In late 1967, photographer Tor Eigoland traveled for more than: a month, mostly by canoe, among the countless villages of southern Iraq's vast marshes. Now, 45 years later, writer Anthony Sattin calls his photographs a "rare and ethnographic record of a lost world. They bring us back to a time and place where people lived in harmony with their environment and respected the balance the natural world needs to thrive.'
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The Marsh Arabs Revisited

The Marsh Arabs Revisited

Written and photographed by Michael Spencer
To Thesiger, life among the Marsh Arabs today would still be familiar. But to a man passionately opposed to what is called progress, it would also come as a dreadful shock—as Michael Spencer suggests in this article written after his first visit to the Marshes last year.
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The Marsh Guide and the English Explorer

The Marsh Guide and the English Explorer

Written by Leon McCarron and Mohammed Al Sarai
Photographed by Emily Garthwaite

Amara bin Thuqub was a teenager in 1952 when he guided British explorer Wilfred Thesiger through the marshes of southern Iraq. Now 91, he is full of memories.

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