Travelling to
Iraq

Erbil is the capital of the Kurdistan Region and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world -- the citadel at its centre, Qal'at Erbil, has been occupied for at least 6,000 years and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The citadel itself is currently being restored and only partially open, but the view from its walls over the sprawling modern city below -- shopping malls, hotel towers, street markets -- collapses your sense of time in a specific way. The Grand Bazaar below the citadel sells copperwork, textiles, and spices in a warren of covered lanes that has been doing business in roughly the same location since the Assyrian period. The restaurants on Ankawa Road in the Christian quarter of the city serve Iraqi-Kurdish food that is a completely distinct culinary tradition from Arabic Iraqi cooking -- lamb stews, dolma, grilled meats, rice dishes coloured with turmeric and dotted with raisins -- in a relaxed atmosphere that feels nothing like a city in a conflict-adjacent country.

• Careem operates in Erbil and gives app-confirmed fares -- install it before landing and use it for everything
• The Qal'at Erbil citadel is free to walk around the perimeter at any time; interior access is limited and changes based on restoration works -- check at the gate
• Ankawa Road's restaurants are where expats, NGO workers, and Erbil's professional class eat -- more relaxed than the city centre, good alcohol availability (Kurdistan is significantly more liberal on alcohol than the rest of Iraq)
• The Erbil Bazaar's best copperwork is in the alley just inside the main gate off Qal'at Square -- the craft has been practiced in this specific spot for centuries

Sulaymaniyah is Kurdistan's cultural capital -- more intellectual, more politically engaged, and more arts-focused than commercial Erbil. The Kurdistan Museum on Salim Street has a collection covering 10,000 years of Kurdish and Mesopotamian history including Sumerian cylinder seals, Neo-Assyrian reliefs, and objects from the Kurdish genocide (Anfal) of the 1980s that form one of the most important human rights documentation collections in the region. The Azmar Mountain east of the city has hiking trails above 1,500 metres with views back over the city and south toward the disputed territories. The old bazaar district around Mawlawi Street has a teahouse culture that is genuinely the city's social heartbeat -- men playing backgammon and trading gossip since before anyone can remember.

• The Kurdistan Museum is the single most important museum in Iraqi Kurdistan and requires at least two hours -- the Anfal documentation rooms are sobering and necessary
• Sulaymaniyah's coffee shops and teahouses are more mixed-gender and relaxed than Erbil's -- the city has a liberal cultural atmosphere by Iraqi standards
• The road from Sulaymaniyah to Halabja (50km southeast) passes through landscape that becomes increasingly significant as you understand what happened here in 1988 -- the Halabja Memorial is the most important memorial to chemical weapons victims in the world
• Avoid travel toward the Iranian border area east of the city without current intelligence -- the border zone has seen security incidents

Beyond the cities, Iraqi Kurdistan has mountain landscapes that most visitors never expect. The Barzan Valley north of Erbil, ancestral home of the Barzani family that has dominated Kurdish politics for generations, has peaks rising to 3,600 metres with hiking trails, waterfalls, and traditional stone villages. Duhok in the northwest -- three hours from Erbil -- is a pleasant mountain city with a lake resort at Duhok Dam and the Amadiya ancient town on a plateau above a sheer-sided mountain that Alexander the Great supposedly detoured around. Rawanduz Gorge, carved by the Great Zab River into limestone cliffs above the town of Rawanduz, has some of the most dramatic canyon scenery in the Middle East and has recently developed basic ecotourism infrastructure with zip lines, canyon walks, and guesthouses.

• Very low scam presence throughout Kurdistan's rural areas -- the region is working hard to develop ethical tourism and the communities benefit directly
• Rawanduz Gorge is 2-3 hours from Erbil on a road that winds dramatically through the mountains -- do it as a full day rather than rushing
• The Hamilton Road from Rawanduz toward Iran (built by New Zealand engineer Archibald Hamilton in the 1920s and 30s) is one of the great mountain drives in the region -- go as far toward the border as current security conditions allow and no further
• Peshmerga checkpoints on mountain roads are frequent and professional -- have your passport accessible and the interaction will be friendly and brief

Baghdad is a city of 9 million people that has survived more than it has any right to and continues to function with a resilience that is its defining characteristic. The Iraq Museum on Museum Square -- the most important collection of Mesopotamian antiquities in the world, looted badly in 2003 and substantially recovered since -- has reopened and is worth the risk calculus for serious visitors interested in what 6,000 years of continuous civilisation actually looks like in object form. The Al-Mutanabbi Street book market, bombed in 2007 and rebuilt, fills every Friday morning with secondhand books, manuscripts, and intellectual Baghdad doing what it has done since the Abbasid Caliphate. The Al-Rashid Street area in the old city has Abbasid-era architecture in various states of preservation. All of this requires current security intelligence, hotel-arranged transport, and realistic acceptance that the visit is genuinely risky.

• The Iraq Museum (Mathaf al-Iraq) is open most days except Monday; check current hours with your hotel as they vary -- budget three to four hours minimum
• Arrange all transport through your hotel. Security conditions in Baghdad change by neighbourhood and by day -- your hotel knows the current safe corridors
• The Green Zone (International Zone) restrictions have eased considerably since 2019 but remain relevant -- don't wander near it without knowing current access rules
• The Al-Mutanabbi Friday book market is one of the most specifically Baghdad experiences available -- the tradition of intellectual life on this street goes back to the 10th century Abbasid period when it was called Darb Zubaydah

The ziggurat of Ur, near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, is a 4,000-year-old stepped temple platform that still rises 30 metres from the Mesopotamian plain. It was built by King Ur-Nammu around 2100 BC, partially reconstructed by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s (a historically controversial decision that is visually apparent), and administered by the Iraqi Air Force whose base surrounds the site -- advance permission is technically required. Babylon, 90km south of Baghdad, is the most famous Mesopotamian site of all: most of the visible remains date to Nebuchadnezzar II's reign (605-562 BC) and include the Ishtar Gate approach (the original is in Berlin's Pergamon Museum; a reconstruction is here), the processional way, and the remains of the palace complex. Visiting these sites requires genuine logistical work with a trusted local operator -- they are worth it.

• Both sites require a local operator with current permissions and contacts -- solo visits to Ur especially are not practical given the military base situation
• The State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) manages access to major sites; a registered local guide or tour company handles the permissions more efficiently than individual visitors can
• The journey from Baghdad to Babylon (90km south) or Nasiriyah (370km south) for Ur requires current road security intelligence -- do not attempt either drive without up-to-date information from your operator on the day of travel
• Ur in late afternoon, when the light turns the honey-coloured brickwork amber and the desert stretches empty in all directions, is one of the most resonant landscape experiences available to anyone willing to reach it

Najaf and Karbala are the two holiest cities in Shia Islam. Najaf holds the tomb of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, in the Imam Ali Shrine -- one of the most visited religious sites on earth, with Wadi-us-Salaam cemetery surrounding it (the largest cemetery in the world by number of burials, over 6 million). Karbala is the site of the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD, where Ali's son Hussein was killed, an event that defines Shia identity as foundationally as anything in religious history. During Arbaeen, up to 20 million pilgrims walk to Karbala from Najaf over two days in the largest annual human gathering on earth. Non-Muslims can visit both cities and the experience of witnessing the scale and sincerity of Shia devotion at these shrines -- the weeping, the prayer, the flags, the community meals (saha) offered freely to pilgrims by local families -- is genuinely unlike anything else on earth.

• Non-Muslims are welcome at both cities but cannot enter the innermost shrine areas -- exterior courtyards and the approach roads are accessible and provide full visual context
• Dress fully conservatively -- women should cover completely; men should wear long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt
• The saha system during pilgrimage periods means that volunteers will press food and tea on you continuously -- accepting is an act of participation in the hospitality tradition, not an obligation to contribute
• The Wadi-us-Salaam cemetery in Najaf is worth time on its own -- the density of domed mausoleums, the families visiting, the sense of accumulated grief and devotion over centuries is unlike any other cemetery in the world