Tuesday, January 11, 2005

The city of two Springs

More information about Mosul:

The following part is copied from a site in the internet about Iraq.

" Mosul is Iraq's third largest city and is situated 396km north of Baghdad. The city was an important trade centre in the Abbasid era, because of its strategic position on the caravan route between India, Persia and the Mediterranean.

Mosul's chief export was cotton, and today's word muslin is derived from the name of the city.

In the 13th century, Mosul was almost completely destroyed by the Mongol invasion, but rebuilding and revival began under Ottoman rule.

Mosul was once a walled city, and the remains of part of the city wall are still in existence at Bashtabia castle, on the western bank of the Tigris.

An ethnically diverse city, Mosul has the highest proportion of Christians of all the Iraqi cities, and contains several interesting old churches, including the Clock and Latin Church, which contains some fine marble and stained glass. The Chaldean Catholic Church of Al-Tahira was built as a monastery in AD300 and became a church in 1600, when various additions were built.

The Mosul Museum contains many interesting finds from the ancient sites of Nineveh and Nimrud. The Mosul House is a beautiful, old-style building, constructed around a central courtyard and with an impressive facade of Mosul marble. It contains displays of Mosul life depicted in tableau form.

An interesting mosque in the city is the Mosque of Nebi Yunus, said to be the burial place of the Biblical Jonah. It is built on a mound beneath which are thought to be part of the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh. Any attempt to verify this is impossible, however, as the site is sacred and cannot be disturbed.

The Great Nuriddine Mosque, built in 1172, has a famously crooked minaret standing 52 metres high. It is built of very elaborate brickwork and is named after its builder, Nuriddin Zanqi."


The nature of the city is very beautiful especially in spring when every thing around you is green and the smell of th air is the smell of the flowers which grow naturally in all the lands around the city.
The real spring lasts for about two months (March and April) , while the last month (May) is so hot that it is considered to be summer. The summer begins from (May to August); it is very hot and dry. They say here that the higher degree of temperature in the world was recorded in Mosul. This perhaps was in the middle of July, when the hot weather was untolerable.

What the people did in the past when there were no electricity?
The houses were built up of stones and Gypsum, the walls were about 40- 50 cm thick, the roof was built in the shape of dome about 4 - 5 meter high. There was some space in the middle of each house without a ceiling and all the rooms have windows opened to that space( I dont know the name of that space in English) but we call it "Hoosh" in arabic.
In this Hoosh, most of the times, there is small garden planted with flower and some trees. In the afternoon, this Hoosh is usually sprayed by water and it get too nice to sit there without fans or airconditions.
In addition almost in every house there is an under-ground room 3- 4 m deep and this is the the place where the people spend the afternoon and at noon. This deep room is called "Rah- Rah" I think the name is Turkish, in Arabic it is called "Sirdab"

In Septemper and October, the temperature starts to drop considerably and the air will smell like it does in spring, so the people called these months "the second spring". So we have two springs in mosul, and the city gained the name of "the City of two spring" or "Um Al-Rabeeain". Novemper is too cold so it is considered as a winter in addition to Decemper,January and February.

So we have 4 months winter, two months spring, 4 summer and 2 springs.The design of the houses is called "the eastern design" and the same is found in Syria specially Aleppo " Halab", which looks very much like Mosul. The summer is too dry, and nowadays we use evaporating water cooler to cool our houses.

In spring and winter we have plenty of thunder and rain, the interesting thing in spring is that, the clouds accumilate in few minutes and the rain starts heavely, then suddenly stops and the sun shines again as if there was no clouds in the sky. The sewage system in the city is very primative, most of the streets drown by the rain to be empty few hours later.

This is our city and we used to the type of life going on here, we don't complain of the hardness of the nature as far as it is from God.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

is that kind of safe to go Mosul right now? Will the election be hold at end of this month? What do you think? Thanks! A Chinese-American.

Truth teller said...

strykeraunt

yes the hoosh is a courtyard
thank you.

Anonymous said...

You really should get out and try and vote.
"It is possible for Iraqis to expect to choose their government, to choose their leadership, to choose their transitional assembly" this idea of voting is revolutionary. Those who don't vote accept all the penalties that come of it because they didn't do anything about it.

Oppression can only survive through silence.

Late last week, Air Force Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, the deputy chief of staff for strategic communications, said there were two provinces that give the Americans "significant concern" - Anbar, which includes the city of Fallujah, and Nineveh, which includes Mosul. He said the Americans were taking "aggressive action" to make sure the vote can be held there.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

-Anonymous 3:20 or X:XX

Truth teller said...

Anonymous 9:45 A Chinese-American
Sorry for the delay in answering your question!
It is definitely unsafe to visit Mosul now or in the near future. It is unsafe to stay in Mosul even for its own citizen.

Truth teller said...

Anonymous X:XX

"Air Force Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, the deputy chief of staff for strategic communications,said the Americans were taking "aggressive action" to make sure the vote can be held there."

beleive me, what ever action they take. It will still be unsafe for any one who try to vote. In particular if he is a well known person in the city.
The american took an aggressive actions to calm down the situation. But after 18 months since the occupation the change from bad to worse.

Anonymous said...

Thank you answer my question!
Hope all the residents in Mosul will be safe ann have chance to VOTE! Best Wishes to you and your family!
I also made a link to your blog. :-)
__A Chinese-American

Mister Ghost said...

When you say Mosul is unsafe, don't you mean the Arabic section of Mosul? I would think the Kurdish neighborhood or enclave is a lot safer than the
Arab section, since it's heavily patrolled by the Peshmerga and local Kurds watching out for insurgent terrorists, and there's not likely to be very many terrorist insurgent supporters/sympathizers there, as there are in the Arabic section.

I bet when it gets really hot in Mosul -- and it sounds like it really gets hot -- you head up to
Kurdistan with the missus and the two daughters that live with you and check out a few waterfalls and the local amusement park, or hang out in Mosul by the river visiting the Iraqi version of a casino.

Truth teller said...

Terrach..

Thank you for your greetings.

In response to your questions, the answer is:
1- Yes I, and many of the people I know want to vote. And certainly will vote if it is safe.

2- The terrorists wrote a warning on the wall in the main streets, on the walls of schools and some other places threatening to kill or behead anyone who'll vote. this is imposssible of coarse if a large number of people will vote. But not far before, they warned the people from cooperating with the Americans, since that time we hear on daily bases a person had been killed because he worked with the Americans or a translater was killed because sometime in the past, he worked to the Americans. They know everybody but nobody knows them.

Perhaps they just watch the process and write the name of the people who vote to kill them later. I personally believe there is NO iraqi suicide-bomber.

3- There are many possibilities, Saddam's old men, secret police or previous army members who found themselves without a source of living, and the can't do any thing except fighting. And maybe any one who counldn't found a job to live from.
I really believe that Islamic jihadists are different, they don't kill innocent people, they dont put bombs near schools, and don't attacks police stations and don't kill iraqi police. (This belief is made on the basis, that I am a muslims and know how muslims think). If this was proved to be false, then I will be sure that those peoples are not real Muslims, and use the name of Islam to cheat the others.

Truth teller said...

Mister Ghost..

when I say Mosul is unsafe, I mean the whole city.
BTW ther is NO arabic and kurd sections in Mosul.
Although the kurds are minority the are situated in most neighborhoods. there is NO pure kurdish section, there are no peshmerga or local kurds watching out for insurgent as you say, I don't know from where you get these wrong informations. there are some areas where the kurds are present in relativley high percentage.
The peshmerga are present only as part of the Iraqi National Guards, and they are (with the ING) very busy in doing there jobs and have no time to look after the other kurds in the city.

The second half of your comment is absolutely correct.