Iraq
A new transitional government of Iraq was elected in January 2005, following the March 2003 invasion, led by an American and British coalition, which drove Saddam Hussein to jail.
Large parts of Iraq consist of desert, but the land between the two major rivers Euphrates and Tigris is green. Oil has traditionally provided about 95% of the country's income.
The population of Iraq is 26 million; its land area 169,000 square miles (larger than Japan; more than twice the size of Idaho).
There certainly are places of interest as you travel to Iraq. For the time being, the only foreigners to travel around Iraq are almost exclusively soldiers of the US led coalition. It is believed that land was cultivated in Iraq as early as 6,000 years ago. No tour operator, as yet, offers guided tours in Iraq. For the Iraqi people and the world's travelers, let's hope this will change very soon. Sightseeing tours will include the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, 5,000 years old, and swamps thought to be the site of the Garden of Eden; Basra, the Venice of the East with its lush gardens and lagoons and the capital, Baghdad, full of traditional bazaars, restaurants, museums, palaces, mosques and shrines.
Iraq consists of steppe-desert in the west and the Mesopotamia lowland lying between the crust-block of Arabia and the fold mountains margining the plateau of Iran and watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates. Outside the desert area we may divide Iraq into two regions:
(1) Low table land of upper Mesopotamia stretching from the Kurdistan Highlands southward to an ancient coastline, running east and west, a little north of Hit (Pitch wells) on the Euphrates: and
(2) the great plain of Lower Mesopotamia, built up of sediment brought down by the Euphrates and Tigris, whose united lower course, the Shatt-el-Arab; In place, as at Hindiya on the Euphrates, barrages have been built to hold back the flood water for irrigation. Recent large-scale irrigation works include the Samarra Barrage across the Tigris designed to store water for irrigation and hydro-electric power, left-bank tributaries of the Tigris, to provide water for irrigation.
Iraq is one of the most ancient countries of the world. The ancient civilization centre was located along Tigris and Euphrates. Petroleum is the most important sector of the economy. Iraq occupies the fifth place among oil-producing countries of the world. Industrialization depends on the oil revenues. Agriculture is still an important economic activity. Iraq is the world's largest exporter of dates.
Baghdad is its capital and the language Arabic. It is lucky to have valley formed by Euphrates and Tigris river which is very fertile and can feed a large population than it is feeding now. Its north eastern part is humid and mountainous and the rest is dry. Its northern zone is rain fed. Both rain fed and irrigated region have good agricultural products of cereals, cotton, vegetables etc. The petroleum is the main source of economy and the dates also add to it. The export of petroleum and dates brings a lot of foreign exchange and makes the country financially and -economically very well off.
In arid region sheep and goat provide milk, meat, hide, skin and wool. Mousul and Basra are two other important cities of the country. These have been centres of commerce and trade. Despite economic richness of the country the people are still backward and Iran-Iraq war being waged for more than eights years has also added to already existing bleak prospects in the field of progress.
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