A southeast Iraqi wetland, called Al Ahwar was believed to be the Biblical Garden of Eden. Saddam Hussein's era had almost totally drained out the area, so it has been converted to a UNESCO world heritage site, explained Iraqi authorities Sunday.
UNESCO calls it a "refuge of biodiversity and the relict landscape of the Mesopotamian Cities."
The area is home to the Madan, or Marsh Arabs, whose lifestyles have not changed much in 6,000 years. You can see them living in reed houses and moving about in narrow canoes called mashufs.
"The near-total destruction of the Iraqi marshlands under the regime of Saddam Hussein was a major ecological and human disaster, robbing the Marsh Arabs of a centuries-old culture and way of life as well as food in the form of fish and that most crucial of natural resources - drinking water," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of UNEP, in a statement at the time.
"The Ahwar is made up of seven sites: three archaeological sites and four wetland marsh areas in southern Iraq. The archaeological cities of Uruk and Ur and the Tell Eridu archaeological site form part of the remains of the Sumerian cities and settlements that developed in southern Mesopotamia between the 4th and the 3rd millennium BCE in the marshy delta of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Ahwar of Southern Iraq - also known as the Iraqi Marshlands - are unique, as one of the world's largest inland delta systems, in an extremely hot and arid environment," says UNESCO.
This is the sacred area of Mesopotamia that is made fertile by Tigris and Euphrates. This is also a spawning ground for Gulf fisheries, as well as nesting ground for millions of bird species, such as the sacred ibis, even as it is a resting spot for wildfowl migrants between Siberia and Africa.
It was in the 1990s that the marshes had been drained in order to flush out escapees believed to be hiding in the reeds. Saddam Hussein had slammed Marsh Arabs for "treason" in the 1980-1988 war with Iran.
The overthrow of Hussein in 2003 enabled many of the dams to be removed and the water return to make the spots marshy again. Foreign environmental agencies supported the local efforts.
As the marshes are massive and isolated, even as they are on the border of Iran, they have been used recently to smuggle drugs and arms. This is also the region where stolen goods, as well as hostages, were kept.
While the Marsh Arabs have lived here for millennia, they continue to be on the edges of Iraq. One study estimated that their population would be 400,000 in the 1950s. However, hundreds of thousands escaped the region during Hussein's reign.
There are vast estimates of how many have migrated abroad, and how many returned.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday hailed UNESCO's decision to declare the area a heritage site. He said it "coincides with the consecutive military victories in the war against" Islamic State.
While the militants have been pushed back from half the areas conquered in 2014, it might be controlling a few of the "world's richest archaeological sites" in northern Iraq. However, they have not reached the south.
Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi member of the Iraqi parliament, tweeted her congratulations.
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