Posted on 09/22/2008 5:16:16 AM PDT by SJackson
The way Barack Obama talks of Iraq, you'd think the whole county is a sea of fire and blood, created by the United States. So he might be surprised to learn that tour operators in Europe and the Middle East are touting this "sea of fire and blood" as a new holiday destination.
One program just put on the market by Terre Entiere, a leading French tour operator, offers a "Christmas Pilgrimage" in December to Iraq's biblical sites, some of which date back more than 2,000 years.
Another program starts in January. Called "Forgotten History," it includes visits to some of the most ancient sites of human civilization in Iraq, the ancient Mesopotamia.
"Frankly, we were surprised by the positive echoes we had as soon as we launched our program," says Pierre Simon, a spokesman for the French company marketing the Iraqi holidays. "People from many European countries, not just France, are showing interest. They want to go and see for themselves."
That Iraq should be a tourist destination is no surprise. Mesopotamia, or the Land of the Two Rivers, is universally recognized as the birthplace of civilization.
It was there that the first cities appeared and the first governments took shape. Sumer and Akkad invented the first forms of writing, the first bureaucracies and the first organized religious doctrines. In its heyday, Babylon, with its "hanging gardens," was the world's largest metropolis.
The first ever book, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was written in Mesopotamia some 3,000 years ago.
The area also holds the location of many biblical stories. Abraham - the common father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - is said to have been born in Ur, near the present-day city of Nasseriah. It was also there that Jacob first saw Rachel at the well and fell for her.
Well this is BS...who wants to go if ya cant shoot somebody.........../s
When will the dinar be worth anything?
Schools reopened in Iraq yesterday.
Obamassiah will raise Hussein (no relation) from the dead, put him back in power, and set the world right again.
I’d like to go.
You’ve got some too, huh?
My husband's in Iraq right now and I wouldn't say that it's a vacation paradise quite yet, but there is hope. (He's *right next to* the ziggurat which belonged to the city of Ur. I so wish I could be there!) :-)
...The cradle of civilization....
Tere is really serious money to be made in this market. REally serious.
And, Thanks you guys, for your service!
No problem! ;-)
Yeah, but not enough to feel really stupid.
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