New York- For many years I had dreamt of making with way to the tiny village to Taq Kasra and nearby Salman Pak in southern Baghdad governorate. to cast my eyes of the Arch of Ctesiphon, a wonder of the ancient world still (barely) standing after everything Iraq has suffered in our lifetimes.
I’d been wanting to visit this place since I first read about it in a guide book almost equally as old. When I arrived with a group of savvy EU backpackers experienced in more intrepid travel, it turned out the site was closed to the public as it was being carefully rehabilitated by the University of Pennsylvania and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities. I twas immediately clear that we would not be able to visit the Arch in the way I had always imagined but we could get close by partially climbing a wall.
Alas we could not gaze at this in all its crumbling glory but I was happy to see the place at all.