[whorleater]

I actually live close to here, and trek out occasionally to show friends the ziggurat. There's some live excavation going on sponsored by the UN, but what's wild is that every random rock in the area that you kick over has Sumerian writing on it.

[dom96]

How's tourism in Iraq these days? Would you say the infrastructure is there for western visitors to come and see the Ziggurat?

[whorleater]

it's fine, there's hordes of youtubers roaming through. I'm a foreigner living in Karbala that's fluent in Iraqi Arabic, so I'm typically not in those circles. Visa on arrival for p9 + eu countries though.

[fedeb95]

I've been fascinated by Sumerian culture lately, it must be awesome to have such close access to Ur. It's amazing how many artifacts are still not translated and for how much such a culture was forgotten.

[jl6]

Can you tell a little more about those random rocks? Is nobody gathering them up and cataloguing them? Why is the UN excavating when there are artefacts lying there on the surface?

[AlotOfReading]

They're only doing excavations necessary to maintain/stabilize the site and finalize the conservation plan they've been putting together since 2014.

[avierax]

Do you have any pic of those random rocks you can share with us(using imgur or similar)?