The Mesopotamian Marshes

The marshes of southern Iraq, where the Tigris and Euphrates draw together before the Gulf, are a vast and ancient world of reed beds and shimmering waterways, sometimes identified with the biblical Garden of Eden. For thousands of years they have been home to the Ma'dan, the Marsh Arabs, who live among the reeds in houses and on floating islands woven from them, poling slender boats through the channels and herding water buffalo. The marshes teem with birdlife and are inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Ahwar of Southern Iraq, a living cultural and natural landscape of rare beauty and deep antiquity.

What you actually see

• The reed waterways - the vast channels and shimmering lagoons.
• The Marsh Arab villages - the reed houses and floating islands.
• The reed boats - the slender traditional canoes among the reeds.
• The birdlife - the abundant waterbirds of the wetlands.

When to go

October to April, the cooler months, are far more comfortable than the intense summer heat and best for birdlife, when migratory flocks gather on the water. The soft light of these months is loveliest for gliding through the reed channels by boat.

Honest expectations

The marshes are reached by boat with local guides from towns such as Basra or Nasiriyah, and their water levels shift with the seasons and the rivers upstream, so the landscape can vary from vast lagoons to narrower channels. As a fabled landscape sometimes called the Garden of Eden, home to an ancient way of life and abundant wildlife, though, they are a place of extraordinary and moving beauty.

Nearby

The city of Basra and the ancient site of Ur lie in the wider region.