Iraq Museum

The Iraq Museum is one of the great collections of ancient world history, containing artefacts spanning seven thousand years of Mesopotamian civilisation — Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Islamic. The Nimrud gold, the Assyrian lion hunt reliefs, the Akkadian victory stele, and the extraordinary collection of cuneiform tablets are among the most significant pieces in world archaeology. Many of the objects came from the ancient sites of Ur, Nineveh, Babylon and Nimrud.

The museum was badly looted during the 2003 invasion and closed for over a decade. It reopened in 2015 after extensive restoration, with many stolen objects recovered through international efforts, though some remain missing. The building is large, the collection is vast, and a serious visit takes at least three hours. The Babylonian and Assyrian galleries are the most spectacular; the Islamic gallery shows the depth of cultural production during Baghdad's medieval golden age.

things to do museum
A story
When US forces entered Baghdad in April 2003, the Iraq Museum was looted over several days. Some 15,000 objects were stolen, including the Nimrud gold — jewellery recovered from royal tombs — and the 5,000-year-old Warka Vase, one of the oldest known narrative art objects in the world. The Warka Vase was recovered three weeks later, wrapped in a blanket, deposited anonymously outside the museum gates.