The Ahwar of Southern Iraq: four marshes and three Sumerian cities in one property

Background

The marshes at the heart of Iraq's water crisis are themselves a World Heritage property. The Ahwar of Southern Iraq: Refuge of Biodiversity and the Relict Landscape of the Mesopotamian Cities is a serial property of seven components inscribed in 2016 under criteria (iii), (v), (ix) and (x). Four are wetland marshes: Huwaizah, the Central Marshes, East Hammar and West Hammar, together described as one of the world's largest inland delta systems. Three are archaeological cities: Uruk, Ur and Tell Eridu, remains of Sumerian cities that grew on the marshy delta of the Tigris and the Euphrates in the fourth and third millennia BCE. The property covers about 211,544 hectares with a buffer zone of about 209,321 hectares.