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Mosul, Iraq Day 2: Overwhelmed

November 18, 2024

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Mosul Day 2 is part of the Iraq Homecoming Trip Report. Catch up on all the posts from Iraq.

On day 2 we headed back to the old town, passing by another mosque that was commissioned by Saddam but was never completed. a large building with domes and towers

We visited neighborhoods where UNESCO was rebuilding the city. This gave me a sense of optimism and made me believe that maybe there was some hope for humanity.

a narrow alleyway with a drain a stone archway with a door open a balcony with a man sitting on a chair a view from a balcony of a building a window with metal bars on the wall a room with a tile floor and windows a building with a balcony a rooftop view of a city a man standing on a balcony with a fence and a city in the background

Instead of viewing Mosul as a war zone or the backdrop for an action movie or video game, I tried to imagine it as an old town worth exploring (see Astray in Old Town: Great Places to Get Lost). a building with a palm tree

a group of people in hardhats standing in a narrow alley a building with a stone wall and a dirt road a stone building with a door and windows

We went to the Assyrian church which is next to the Chaldean church, both of which were destroyed by ISIS. These hallowed grounds were the places that Pope Francis visited in 2021. Despite the efforts to rebuild, much work is needed to restore the churches. a sign on a fence a ruined building with columns and rubble a ruined building with pink pillars a broken windows in a building a window with a broken window a broken building with rubble in the ground a building with holes in the wall a pile of rocks and a building

A further tour of the old town showed more of the havoc that ISIS caused. It is hard to imagine that only a few years ago this place was a killing zone with civilians being used as human shields to advance a hopeless ideology (see ISIS Influence in Istanbul: A Call to Arms for the Arab World). an old building with a broken roof a stone alley way with a doorway and a doorway a stone building with a stone arch a stone doorway in a ruined building a stone archway with carvings a street light in a ruined building a destroyed building in a rocky area a street with buildings in the background a dirt road with rubble on the side of it a rocky landscape with a building and a body of water a building with many windows and a body of water a ruined building with many windows and rubble a pile of rocks and rocks with a red and white tape

a rocky area with a body of water and a building in the background — The mosque on one side. The destruction on the other.

a body of water with a dock and buildings in the background — Eerie to say the least.

a truck driving down a dirt road — Just a typical day with an armed patrol in an area covered with rubble.

a motorcycle parked on the side of a road

The terror has been replaced by NGOs. We visited one that pulled bodies from the rubble and continued to work on restoring what was once a beautiful city. The headquarters were lent to the NGO by a philanthropist who used to deal in the horse trade business.

a courtyard with a fountain and a building with columns

One interesting story was how from one room in the mansion ISIS was firing at the Iraqi army and the army firing back from another.

a courtyard with a courtyard and a fence — Imagine this was once the scene of a gun battle.

Lunch

After that intense morning, it was time for lunch. Lunch was on top of a grocery store. The grocery store had some interesting snacks, but the restaurant was nothing worth writing about, except for the triple caffeinated Arabic coffee.

a black car parked in front of a building a group of cereal boxes a group of black cans on a shelf a coffee pot and cups on a wooden tray