Staring out at the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu with the sun beating down in the midst of the Iraqi desert, Philippe Cousin breathlessly exclaimed, “It’s extraordinary.”
The retired French engineer’s family, even his country’s foreign ministry, urged him not to make the trip for security reasons but, he said, “I just had to see this with my own eyes.”
Cousin is traveling with 18 others as part of the first French tour group to visit Iraq since 2003. On the itinerary are the ancient cities of Ur, Babylon and Uruk, sites regarded as the birthplace of civilization that few foreigners have seen since the US-led invasion of that year.
PHOTO: AFP
“This really stirs up the emotions,” Cousin murmured as Catherine Sudre, one of the group’s four guides, recalled Girsu’s history, and details of Sumerian gods and goddesses and various legends that have influenced biblical stories such as those of the Great Flood and of Cain and Abel.
“Everyone would love to see these sights, but they are afraid, they say it is impossible to visit such a country,” the tall 65-year-old said.
“We know that we are pioneers, but other people probably think we are crazy,” he said.
Ur, the biblical birthplace of Abraham, “is extraordinary, it’s amazing, it’s moving,” said Christiane Leroy Prost, a 65-year-old academic. “We’ve all been dreaming of seeing places like this since we were kids when we read stories and legends about the Middle East.”
The idea of organizing the tours of Iraq originated with Hubert Debbasch, an entrepreneur and founder of Terre Entiere, a cultural and religious tours operator.
“Iraq has a concentration of sites with religious or spiritual importance, whether they be Christian, Muslim or Jewish,” the 44-year-old said. “We are in the cradle of civilization, the birthplace of writing.”
For Debbasch, the trip had political significance as well.
“I detest how some countries are portrayed as evil and others as good — the best way to close the gap is to build bridges with human contact,” he said.
However, security is a major concern in a country where violence, though down from its peaks in 2006 and 2007, remains high. In May, 337 people were killed as a result of attacks, according to government figures.
As a result, the group was forced to fly into Kuwait and drive up to the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah, a 370km trip.
Baghdad, however, is out of bounds.
“Too dangerous,” Debbasch said. “The south, contrary to what the foreign ministry believes, is a peaceful region. If I had even the slightest doubt, I would cancel the whole thing.”
The group, made up of adventurers or passionate historians, is taking precautions, though, and travels with a security detail made up of three Iraqi police officers.
In Tello, 50km north of Nasiriyah, their bus abruptly came to a halt when their security team spotted a motorcycle parked in the middle of the road ahead.
“Our police officer is going to go by himself to check that the motorcycle does not have a bomb,” Debbasch told the travelers, before a false alarm could be declared.
Iraq has acknowledged that tourism is a crucial potential source of income for provinces that lack oil resources or modern religious shrines, but the industry has yet to take off, with security remaining the main concern.
The country is already a well-known destination for religious travel for Muslims from near neighbors such as Iran, Pakistan and Bahrain. In 2008, it hosted almost 1 million tourists, mostly from the Middle East.
However, in a bid to attract visitors from further afield, Iraqi officials held an event in London in November. As premier attractions, they touted Babylon and the Garden of Eden, which some historians say is located 80km north of the port city of Basra.
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