Day 1: Arrive Baghdad — City of the Arabian Nights
Arrive Baghdad International Airport. Meet your Koryo Tours leader and local Iraqi guide. Afternoon: orientation tour of central Baghdad — Al-Mutanabbi Street (the historic booksellers’ street, lined with stalls selling manuscripts, poetry, and political tracts since the Abbasid era), the 13th-century Abbasid Palace with its distinctive brickwork, and Shabandar Café (open since 1917, a legendary intellectual meeting place — the walls are covered with photographs of Baghdad’s literary history). Evening: welcome dinner at a traditional Baghdad restaurant featuring masgouf — Iraq’s national dish, a whole carp butterflied and slow-grilled over an open flame, a tradition dating back to Sumerian times. Overnight Baghdad.
Day 2: Baghdad — Treasures of Mesopotamia
Full day in Baghdad. Morning: the Iraq National Museum — recently reopened and home to the world’s greatest collection of Mesopotamian artifacts. See the Warka Vase (5,100 years old, the world’s oldest narrative relief), the Mask of Warka (the “Sumerian Mona Lisa,” 5,200 years old), the Nimrud Gold jewelry collection, and colossal Assyrian winged bulls (lamassu) from the palace of Sargon II. The museum’s story is itself extraordinary — 15,000 artifacts were looted during the 2003 invasion, but over half have been recovered, and the rebuilt galleries are world-class. Afternoon: the Al-Kadhimiya Mosque and the Martyr’s Memorial (the split turquoise dome, Baghdad’s most recognizable monument). Optional visit to the site of the legendary Round City — the original 8th-century circular Baghdad of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur. Evening: dinner at a riverside restaurant on the Tigris. Overnight Baghdad.
Day 3: Karbala & Najaf — The Shia Holy Cities
Morning drive south to Karbala (2 hours). Visit the Imam Hussein Shrine — one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, with its golden dome, intricate mirror work interior, and the eternal flame burning in the martyr’s sanctuary. Millions of pilgrims visit annually during Arbaeen. Walk through the bustling bazaars surrounding the shrine. Afternoon: continue to Najaf, the other great Shia holy city. Visit the Imam Ali Shrine (the supposed burial place of Adam and Noah as well) with its golden dome and minarets. Walk through Wadi al-Salam — the “Valley of Peace,” the world’s largest cemetery, where an estimated 6 million people are buried across 6 square kilometers. Shia Muslims from across the world request burial here, and coffins arrive daily. The sheer scale is staggering. Overnight Najaf.
Day 4: Babylon — The Legendary City
Morning drive to Babylon (1.5 hours). Babylon needs no introduction — the city of Nebuchadnezzar II, the Hanging Gardens (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), the Tower of Babel, and Hammurabi’s Code. Walk the reconstructed Processional Way past the glazed brick Ishtar Gate (the original is in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum; a faithful replica stands here) decorated with dragons and bulls in vivid cobalt blue. See the Lion of Babylon (a 2,600-year-old basalt sculpture), the foundations of the Etemenanki ziggurat (likely the inspiration for the biblical Tower of Babel), and Saddam Hussein’s partially reconstructed palace overlooking the ruins — a bizarre contrast of ancient bricks and 1980s presidential ego. Afternoon: continue south to Nasiriyah. Overnight Nasiriyah.
Day 5: The Mesopotamian Marshes — Garden of Eden
Full-day immersion in the Mesopotamian Marshes (Al-Ahwar), a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the world’s most extraordinary ecosystems. This vast wetland — drained by Saddam Hussein in the 1990s to punish the Marsh Arabs, then partially reflooded after 2003 — is where the Tigris and Euphrates meet, and where many scholars place the biblical Garden of Eden. Explore by traditional mashoof (narrow canoe) through channels of reeds and water lilies, past water buffalo wallowing in the shallows. Visit a Ma’dan village — Marsh Arabs who live on floating islands constructed entirely from qasab (giant reeds), in mudhif guesthouses with soaring arched ceilings unchanged since Sumerian times. Drink cardamom coffee with village elders, learn about their unique culture, and watch the sunset from your boat as thousands of birds — herons, ibis, and the endemic Basra reed warbler — return to roost. Overnight in a traditional mudhif in the marshes — sleeping on thin mattresses on reed mats, an unforgettable cultural immersion.
Day 6: Ur & Uruk — Where Civilization Began
Morning: Ur — the biblical birthplace of Abraham, a Sumerian city-state that flourished 4,000 years ago. The Great Ziggurat of Ur is one of the best-preserved in Mesopotamia — a massive stepped pyramid of mud-brick rising 30 meters above the desert, built around 2100 BC for the moon god Nanna. Walk the reconstructed lower chambers of the royal tombs where the “Great Death Pit” was discovered (74 attendants sacrificed to accompany their queen into the afterlife). Afternoon: Uruk (Warka) — the world’s first true city, founded around 4000 BC, where writing was invented (cuneiform tablets found here are the earliest known examples of written language). Uruk was home to the legendary King Gilgamesh, whose Epic is humanity’s oldest surviving work of literature. See the massive temple precinct of Eanna, dedicated to the goddess Inanna (Ishtar). Return to Nasiriyah. Overnight Nasiriyah.
Day 7: Basra — The Venice of the East
Morning drive to Basra (2 hours), Iraq’s second city and historic port on the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Basra was once known as the “Venice of the East” for its network of canals. Visit the Basra Museum (housed in a former Saddam-era palace), the old Ashar district along the corniche, and the traditional bazaar. Take a boat ride on the Shatt al-Arab. Afternoon: the Tree of Adam — a gnarled old tree that local tradition claims is the site of the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve met after being expelled. Farewell dinner of Basra-style seafood. Overnight Basra.
Day 8: Departure
Transfer to Basra International Airport for departure.
