Iraq Tour 13 Days – 12 Nights

Day 1: Arrival in Basrah City

Basrah city tour visit (Shanasheel Heritage Buildings in the Old City of Basra ),Basra Corniche, Basrah museum..

Day 2: Basrah-Marshalnds- Nasriya

Second tour in Basrah

-Transfer to Marshlands The Mesopotamian Marshes, also known as the Iraqi Marshes, are a wetland area located in Southern Iraq and southwestern Iran. The marshes are primarily located on the floodplains of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers bound by the cities of Basra, Nasiriyah, Amarah, and a portion of southwestern Iran.

Then travel to Nasirya, transfer to hotel

Day 3 : Nasriya (Visit Ur & Uruk)

-Visit the city of Ur a city-state in ancient Mesopotamia located in the south of modern-day Iraq, the city is considered to be the heart of the ancient east and the political and religious capital of Sumeria during the third dynasty.

This period in the history of Sumer is known as the Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE) and was the age in which the city of Ur reached its height. The great ziggurat of Ur, which can still be visited in modern times, dates from this period as do most of the ruins of the city and the cuneiform tablets discovered there.

The two greatest kings of the Third Dynasty were Ur-Nammu (r. 2047-2030 BCE) and his son Shulgi of Ur (r. 2029-1982 BCE) who created an urban community devoted to cultural progress and excellence and, in doing so, gave birth to what is known as the Sumerian Renaissance.

-Visit Uruk also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of

Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River.

Uruk is the home of the legendary king Gilgamesh, who ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC also who is the hero of “The Epic of Gilgamesh”.

Uruk’s agricultural surplus and large population base facilitated processes such as trade, specialization of crafts, and the evolution of writing; writing may have originated in Uruk around 3300 BC. Evidence from excavations such as extensive pottery and the earliest known tablets of writing support these events.

Then transfer to Karbala to the hotel…

Day 4: Krabala Tour (Alukhaidir fortress, Al-Aqiser church)-Najaf-Karbalah

-Visit Alukhaidir fortress, considered one of the greatest fortresses in the Middle East, It is a large rectangular fortress constructed during the Abbasid caliphate. The site represents the architectural ingenuity of the Abbasids, and it is situated at The crossroads of trade routes and caravans passing between Basra, Kufa, Mosul, and Damascus.

Then transfer to Najaf to visit Wadi-al-Salaam cemetery, it’s an Islamic cemetery, located in the Shia holy city of Najaf, Iraq. It is the largest cemetery in the world. The cemetery covers 1,485.5 acres and contains more than 8 million bodies. It also attracts millions of pilgrims annually. And back to Karbala

-Visit Imam Hussain, The Imam Hussain Shrine is the mosque and burial site of Hussain ibn Ali, the third Imam of Islam, in the city of Karbala, Iraq

Then back to Karbala hotel.

Day 5: Karbala-Babylon-Baghdad

After breakfast check out from Karbala Hotel, then travel to Babylon ...

Babylon, One of the greatest cities in ancient history, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, a neo-Assyrian successor state, from 609 to 539 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon ranked as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

-The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed circa 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was part of a grand walled processional way leading into the city.

Then travel to Baghdad if there is some time make a city tour in Alkarkh side...

Day 6: City Tour in Baghdad City (Martyr's Monument, Al Mutanabbi Street, Al Quishla)

-Visit Martyr's Monument, also known as the Martyr's Memorial, is a monument designed by Iraqi sculptor Ismail Fatah Al Turk and situated in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

-Visit the Iraqi Museum, The Iraq Museum is the National Museum of Iraq, located in Baghdad.

It is sometimes mistakenly called the National Museum of Iraq, a recent phenomenon influenced by other nations' naming of their national museums; but The Iraq Museum's name is inspired by the name of the British Museum..

-Visit Al Mutanabbi Street, near the old quarter of Baghdad at Al Rasheed Street It is the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, a street filled with bookstores and outdoor book stalls. It was named after the 10th-century classical Iraqi poet Al‑Mutanabbi

-Visit Al Quishla Clock is an Ottoman site in Baghdad, The Ottoman Wali (governor) Namiq Pasha started the building in 1881

Day 7: Second Tour in Baghdad (Taq Kasra, Kadhimiya City)

-Visit Tāq Kasrā, also transcribed as Taq-i Kisra or Taq-e Kesra or Ayvān-e Kesrā are the remains of a Sasanian era Persian monument, dated to c. the 3rd to 6th-century, which is sometimes called the Arch of Ctesiphon. It is located near the modern town of Salman Pak,

-Visit Al-Kadhimiya Mosque or Al-Kadhimayn Shrine is a Shi'ite Islamic mosque and shrine located in the Kādhimayn suburb of Baghdad, Iraq. It contains the tombs of the seventh and ninth Twelver Shī'ī Imāms, respectively Mūsā al-Kāẓim and his grandson Muhammad al-Jawad.

Third tour in Baghdad visit: Liberation Square (Sahet Al Tahreer), Firdos Square, city tour in Baghdad (Adhamiya, Alrasheed Street, Hayfa Street)

-Visit Liberation Square (Sahet Al Tahreer), is located in central Baghdad at the intersection of al-Sadoun Street and the Jamhouriyya Bridge Road. Liberation Square is Baghdad's biggest and most central square located in the Al-Rusafa part of the city on the eastern banks of the River Tigris.

Then back to Baghdad hotel….

Day 8: Baghdad-Samara-Hatra-Mosul

-Traveling to Samarra to visit Malwiya Mosque, The Great Mosque of Samarra is a mosque from the 9th century CE located in Samarra, Iraq. The mosque was commissioned in 848 and completed in 851 by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil who reigned from 847 until 861. At the time of construction, it was the world's largest mosque.

-The Abbasid Palace was probably established by Caliph Al-Naser Ledinillah in the 12th century, during the Abbasid period of history, making it one of the oldest palaces in the world, and it is the oldest surviving building in Baghdad.

And then traveling to Hatra, Hatra was an ancient city in north Mesopotamia, located in present-day eastern Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. Hatra was a strongly fortified caravan city as an important historic religious center with its strategic position along caravan trade routes. Hatra was one of the first Arab states to be established outside of Arabia.

Then go to Mosul city, overnight at Mosul hotel...

Day 9: Mosul-Erbil

City tour in Mosul, The second largest city in Iraq. Mosul is considered to be among the larger and more historically and culturally significant cities of the Arab World due to Mosul’s strategic location, it has traditionally served as a hub of international commerce and travel. Historically, important products of the area include Mosul marble and oil.

The city is full of cultural diversity as Mosul and its surroundings have an ethnically and religiously diverse population, it was a cultural center during the assyrian period in Mesopotamia, a very important city during the Abbasid Caliphate and later during the Ottoman period, and then modern Iraq.

-Visit old Mosul and reconstruct for Al-Nouri Mosque Al-Hadba minaret and Al Tahira Church.

Then go to Erbil to visit the citadel.

Day 10: Erbil-Dohuk

After breakfast go to the ancient city of Amadiya, and a trip to Amadiya and Rawanduz.

Day 11: Dohuk- Erbil

City tour in Erbil city

Day 12: Erbil-Shaqlawa-bekhal-Korek Mountain

-Trip around in Erbil area.

Day 13: Last Day in Erbil.

Transfer from Erbil hotel to airport.