Mosul

Watch a city stitch itself back together

Northern Iraq · BEST SEASON: October - April

Cross the Tigris into the Old City and you can hear the recovery: stonemasons tapping in the alleys, the bells of Al-Saa'a answering the midday call to prayer. The Al-Hadba minaret — 850 years old, dynamited in 2017, reopened in 2025 — leans over the rooftops again, rebuilt from salvaged brick with its famous tilt intact. On Najafi Street, booksellers stack poetry and engineering textbooks on the same pavement where the trade once survived in secret. Across the river rise the mounds of Nineveh: Sennacherib's palace, the Adad and Mashki gates, and 2,700-year-old reliefs of archers and grapevines uncovered during the rebuild. An hour east, the Nineveh Plains hold Qaraqosh's restored churches and Rabban Hormizd Monastery, cut into the cliffs above Alqosh. Some streets are still scarred — we won't pretend otherwise — which is exactly why Moslawis are so glad you came. Order kubbat Mosul, a plate-sized disc of bulgur and spiced lamb, and let someone tell you what this city survived.

FROM OUR TRIP JOURNAL

Last March we were drinking tea by the book stalls on Najafi Street when the owner, Abu Firas, asked whether the new minaret really leaned like the one he grew up under. He shut his stall and walked us there himself, eleven of us trailing him through the alleys, and stood beneath Al-Hadba a long moment before laughing: "Crooked. Thank God."

WHAT WE SHOW YOU

Al-Nouri Mosque and the Al-Hadba Minaret

religious

Rebuilt brick by salvaged brick and reopened in 2025, famous medieval lean included. Dress modestly; women need a headscarf inside the prayer hall.

Nineveh and Its City Gates

heritage

Across the Tigris: Sennacherib's twelve-kilometre wall and the Adad and Mashki gates, where restorers uncovered 2,700-year-old reliefs of archers, grapevines and pomegranates.

Al-Saa'a Convent and Al-Tahera Church

religious

Two Old City churches restored stone by stone after 2017; Al-Saa'a's clock, a gift from Empress Eugénie of France, keeps time over Mosul again.

Najafi Street Booksellers

culture

Mosul's old printing quarter is trading again — poetry, Qurans and engineering textbooks stacked on the pavement, with tea offered before any price is named.

The Nineveh Plains

culture

An hour east: Qaraqosh's Grand Immaculate Church, where Pope Francis prayed in 2021, and Rabban Hormizd Monastery clinging to the cliffs above Alqosh.