Latest Stories
Jul 11, 2018
Salvaging Iraq’s remaining wilderness
Almost from the moment he could walk, Muhammad Siddik Barzani has delighted in his native Barzan region’s rich flora and fauna.
From the herds of curly-horned wild goats, some 5,000 of whom…
Jun 14, 2018
Battling pollution in history’s most fabled sea
Were Jason and the Argonauts to set sail now, they would scarcely recognize their original route. The shorelines, once covered in trees, have been largely stripped of greenery, while many of the fine…
May 29, 2018
How Saddam and ISIS Killed Iraqi Science
Within decades the country’s scientific infrastructure went from world-class to shambles. What happened? Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-saddam-and-isis-killed-iraqi-science-180969097/#sBTwkLWJqFjGDmEi.99 Give the gift of Smiths
Mar 19, 2018
The Explosive Battle to Build an Iraqi National Park
Amid land mines, militants, and air strikes, conservationists are trying to carve out a protected area in the war-torn country. Can they succeed?
Feb 25, 2018
How dangerously dirty water is threatening one of the world's ancient religions
On an unseasonably warm winter afternoon in Baghdad, Sheikh Anmar Ayid hitches up his robe and crouches by the Tigris river. Rocking back and forth on his haunches, he flicks the water from side to…
Feb 20, 2018
The city’s embassies have come to form a kind of timeline in bricks and mortar for ‘who’s hot’ and ‘who’s not’ in the Arab World.
The city’s embassies have come to form a kind of timeline in bricks and mortar for ‘who’s hot’ and ‘who’s not’ in the Arab World.
Jan 22, 2018
How climate change and population growth threaten Egypt’s ancient treasures
In his 40-something years as an archaeological excavator on Luxor’s West Bank, Mustafa Al-Nubi has witnessed a flurry of changes.
Tourist numbers have surged, fallen, and then slowly grown…
Dec 19, 2017
Cairo's Bad Breath
If the Nile is Cairo’s ailing heart, then polluted skies are its black lungs.
Choking the city with swirling dust from the early hours, they cake the towering apartment blocks with muck and…