Iraq Races to Save Ancient Heritage Sites Threatened by Climate Change

Iraq Races to Save Ancient Heritage Sites Threatened by Climate Change
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((REPORT))

Iraqi officials are raising urgent concerns over the survival of the country’s ancient monuments as climate change accelerates the erosion of historic sites in southern Iraq, Reuters reported.
Rising temperatures, prolonged drought, and increasing soil salinity are threatening the remains of Mesopotamia’s great cities — including Ur, the birthplace of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, and Babylon, once the heart of powerful empires. Archaeologists warn that the combination of wind, heat, and sand dunes is causing structural damage to millennia-old monuments.

At the Ziggurat of Ur — a 4,000-year-old stepped pyramid dedicated to the moon god Nanna — sandstorms are wearing away its northern side. “The combination of wind and sand dunes leads to the erosion of the northern sections of the structure,” said Abdullah Nasrallah, an archaeologist with the Dhi Qar antiquities department. He noted that while the upper layer had already deteriorated due to weathering, erosion has now begun to damage the second layer as well.

Nearby, salt deposits are corroding the mud bricks of the Royal Cemetery of Ur, discovered in the 1920s by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley. Dr. Kazem Hassoun, an antiquities inspector in Dhi Qar, warned that the buildup of salts caused by climate change could eventually lead to the site’s collapse.

Farther north along the Euphrates, the ancient city of Babylon — another UNESCO World Heritage Site — faces similar threats. Dr. Montaser al-Hasnawi, director general at Iraq’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that high salinity levels are damaging clay-based structures, some still bearing ancient Sumerian engravings. He added that earlier restoration efforts worsened the problem by using materials unsuited for the region’s changing environment.

Iraq, already scarred by decades of conflict and instability, is now facing climate pressures that threaten both its agricultural and cultural heritage. Officials warn that without urgent restoration work and environmental mitigation, many of Iraq’s buried cities and ancient monuments could be lost to history.