Iraqis are furious over their government s demolition of a minaret that stood for nearly 300 years arabnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from arabnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
March 2023 marked the 20-year anniversary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The war, violence and reconstruction efforts that followed have had an impact on Iraq’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Following the collapse of the government, looting occurred at an unprecedented scale. The most well-publicized instance was the looting of the national museum of Iraq (founded one hundred years ago, in March of 1923, as a single room in a government building housing artifacts and curated by the British Orientalist Gertrude Bell).
3 February 2021 UCL has received a donation of more than £11m for research and teaching on the history, heritage and languages of Mesopotamia, the ancient ‘land between two rivers’ that is now home to modern day Iraq, Northern Syria and Eastern Turkey.
The gift will fund both Iraqi led research to create economic and social benefits for local communities and a dedicated new UK hub at UCL for Ancient Middle Eastern Languages.
It will build on the activities of the UCL led Nahrein Network, which takes a new approach to education and research on heritage, history and the humanities in Iraq and neighbouring countries.