All Aboard For Babylon,Iraq

With all we here about Iraq and have heard for the last several years, one place we that somehow flies under the radar is Babylon. This blog made its most recent “visit” to Babylon about 4 months ago and so it seemed time for an update. Today was a day for major celebration in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities as Iraqi forces took over significant responsibilities that had been held by American forces for some time.

So in consideration of these events, what is happening in the former capital city, that was once the most important city in the world? Once again, we start with Joel Rosenberg and move to an article in yesterday’s Stars and Stripes which gives some truly fascinating detail.

Seth Robson wrote an article entitled U.S.,Iraqi experts developing plan to preserve Babylon, build local tourism industry. The article discusses how soldiers of the 172nd Infantry Brigade are exploring the ruins of the ancient city as part of a joint U S -Iraqi effort to preserve the are and prepare it to be a tourist destination. US tourism experts  Gina Haney and Jeff Allen just made their first visit  in their capacity as the State Department’s  site managers/developers. Numbers in the millions of  visitors per year are envisioned. Admittedly this will take time and money, of which the latter is poised to return to Iraq in a big way. There has even  been a recent story from Taiwan about tours that have already begun in  order to  to watch the city’s rebuilding up close and personal.

Very, very interesting stuff and well worth keeping an eye on. I cannot help but wonder what the Old Testament prophet Daniel would have thought of this.

U S soldiers guarding the ancient city

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