Charax

We had a visit from a local TV crew. They were making a documentary about Agatha Christie, so I'm not sure we were really the right thing for them, but we are always happy to share our work. They thought we were British archaeologists, but in fact our teams are usually multi-national. This year we are Iraqi, Italian and Dutch as well as British. Daniele gets to explain what's going on. We wonder if he is the first Roman to be at Charax since the emperor Trajan came in 116 AD?
Photos: Steffen Mierisch

Early morning, The day is just starting, It is cool and pleasant, and the light is kind.

When Alexander ordered the building of a city at the confluence of the Tigris and the Karun, the rivers were not in the same place as today. Rivers and canals have moved a lot during Iraq's history. Trying to unravel the complicated picture they present is a great challenge, for which we need geomorphology. The brilliant RSK Iraq, a British company working in Basra, has kindly lent us their drilling crew to take some deep core samples from the earth. Analysing the sediments will help sort things out.

It looks very barren today, but Charax was a great city with many, many fine and impressive buildings. These are the bases of two columns, part of the peristyle around an Arsacid (Parthian) mansion.