On holiday with Saddam

Despite Foreign Office advice that Iraq is still very definitely off-limits to British tourists, two tour operators are offering trips there this autumn. PETER GRAY gets in (and out) first

WELCOME to Iraq," said the doctor, dabbing at the blood trickling down my arm.

A portrait of Saddam Hussein kept watch as the doctor completed the formalities: Westerners have to take an Aids test before entering the country.

Saddam Hussein looms large everywhere - on murals and posters outside schools and factories, on street corners and at petrol stations, keeping watch over his people. Portrayed in everything from skiwear to summerwear, he has more guises than Imelda Marcos has shoes.

Not that Aids tests, Saddam in sandals, sanctions or the threat of human shields seem to stop people from visiting Iraq: I was travelling with a small group organised by world-traveller turned tour-operator Phil Haines, whose next trip in October is already being booked up.

Now Voyages Jules Verne has joined in with two planned trips to Iraq, despite Foreign Office advice to avoid the country.

For two decades Iraq has been almost impossible to visit, due to war with Iran, internal conflicts with the Kurds and Shiites, the Gulf War and sanctions. Now the UN-imposed flight ban means the only way to enter Iraq is by road, from Amman or Damascus. The Collins 1934 Travellers Guide to Iraq describes the 530-mile journey from Damascus as taking "24 hours by Pullman motor-coaches with lavatory and buffet". Today the journey can take up to 14 hours by boring old car.

A c a r - l e s s A n c i e n t Mesopotamia was in my mind's eye as the border guard waved us through: the road to Baghdad, across endless semi-desert, leads to the sites of some of the greatest ancient cities: Ur, the city of Abraham. Uruk, the first city on earth. Eridu, the mound of creation. Babylon, site of the hanging gardens and the tower of Babel.

Arriving in Baghdad -"Saddam City" on one signpost - in the scorching summer heat, romantic notions disappeared like mirages.

Little remains of the city of "the thousand and one nights", and drab Eastern European-style architecture prevails. At the entrance of the Al Rasheed hotel, a cleaner polished floor tiles depicting a snarling President Bush with the words "Bush is Criminal".

Iraqis on the streets were curious at the sight of European faces.

Everywhere people waved - even soldiers at checkpoints. The souks were stocked with basic food items, piles of cheap plastic sandals and clothing.

But they lacked the bustle of other Middle Eastern souks.

Anything remotely luxury was rare, and "When will the sanctions be lifted?" was a regular, bewildered question.

Iraq is a country ever on the cusp of war and peace, with plenty of reminders.

Tariq, our guide, was keen for us to see the air-raid shelter in Al Armaria, Baghdad, hit by a missile during the Gulf War. Left unrepaired, it has become a shrine to more than 300 people killed, and the charred inside walls are lined with photographs of children killed in the shelter, as well as gruesome fragments of human bodies, embedded in the ceiling.

Mosul, 400km north, is Iraq's northernmost city, and has the largest Christian population. It is a good base for visiting the four Assyrian capitals. Nimrud and Nin-eveh are especially impressive: Nimrud is overlooked by a crumbling ziggurat (a pyramidal temple- tower) although many of the detailed bas-relief that made it so fascinating are now in the British Museum.

We travelled south of Baghdad in the wake of thousands of Iranians, making the pilgrimage to the Shiite shrines at Karbala and Najaf now that the border is open for the first time since the Iran- Iraq war.

Many carried corpses to be buried at the second largest graveyard in the world at Najaf. We switched course to the ancient site of the almost mythological Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar - he of champagne bottle fame brought the captured peoples of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC. Today Babylon is a mixture of archaeological Disneyland and genuine preservation: many ancient buildings have been recreated on the original foundations. On every 50th new brick among those bearing the name Nebuchadnezzar is the title of the present ruler of Babylon: Saddam Hussein.

Overlooking the site is palace of the Saddam era. Our guide tried to ban photographs - as ridiculous as asking tourists photographing the Houses of Parliament to avoid Big Ben.

Further south are three cities as old as time: Uruk, Ur and Eridu. At Uruk - the biblical Erech - the first writing on earth was found, dating back more than 5,000 years. All that remains among the archaeologists' excavations around the crumbling ziggurat are shards of pottery, bone, shells and parts of ancient walls. At Ur and Eridu to the south-west, past meets present more awesomely than anywhere else in Iraq. The land around these ancient cities formed the front line for the Gulf War. Massive tank walls from the war pierce the horizon for miles.

All around are bomb craters and the debris of war, signatures of mankind at the temple of creation. It is timeless and eerie - how one might imagine the aftermath of a biblical Armageddon rather than yet another face-off with Saddam. lPhil Haines's company Live Ltd (0181 737 3725) plans a trip to Iraq in October subject to the political and military climate.

Copyright 1998
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.