Baghdad historical
city
Baghdad, the Round City, the city of 1001 nights, Dar Al Salam, Al Zawra’a, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate; those are some of the names that the city holds since it was built by Abu Ja’afar Al Mansour in 762AD on the western banks of the river Tigris. Since then, Baghdad has faced many challenges that has led it to loose some of its valuable architectural treasures.
The Round City could not stand the forces of nature and was destroyed in a major flood in the 10th century. The new Baghdad at Rusafa, on the East bank of the river, has since flourished. However, it has also been under constant floods, epidemics and foreign invasions that have affected the city’s historical monuments.
The walled city have since have been almost at the same shape until 1886 when the Ottoman Wali decided to detroy the city wall.
- Then on early in the 20th century, Al Rasheed Street was built, cutting and wounding major spines and sites of the dense historical urban pattern. At the time, it was a political decision made for military purposes by the Ottoman ruler of the city.
Al Rasheed Street was also a testament to the modernization movement after the car was introduced. Serving as both an archive of Baghdad’s history and a reminder of paradise lost, it reflects the cultural and architectural marvels of one of the Middle East’s most reverent and cursed cities. Al Rasheed Street today is a ghost of its past.
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