Monumental Mission

All,

Just got my monthly Smithsonian (February 2008) and it reminded my of my college western civilization professor and the two semesters he led me on a tour de force of world history. His lectures on The Fertile Crescent and Hammurabi's Code were foremost in my mind when I flew over Ur, walked through Ishtar's Gate into Babylon, and marveled at the many works of the Assyrians in Mosul.

Robert M. Poole takes a look at World War II and the repatriation of art performed by US Troops and provides a small glimpse of Baghdad's Iraq Museum in this months Smithsonian:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/

http://www.baghdadmuseum.org/

In Mosul snipers (not ours) used to like to hang out at Nabi Yunis Mosque/Jonahs Tomb and this combined with a directive against entering Mosques put the kibosh on visiting. Not far away however, was Sennacherib's palace were one could actually see cuneiform writing, bias relief war scenes, and winged bulls. Amazing stuff.

Steve