Soldiers help preserve history

6-29-09
http://www.theredbulls.org/article172

Soldiers of the 172nd Infantry Brigade are enabling documentarians, historians and preservationists ensure ancient Iraqi history is preserved and documented in Babil Province. The 172nd Inf. Bde. provides these experts transportation and security as part of their ongoing mission in support of the Babil Provincial Reconstruction Team.

The Babil PRT hosted the World Monuments Fund to conduct site surveys of Babylon, an ancient city near the modern city of Al Hillah in Babil Province. These surveys were conducted to determine the possibility of making the Babylon ruins a sustainable historic and tourism site and to develop responsible tourism associated with the ruins.

The World Monuments Fund is a New York based private, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites worldwide through fieldwork, education and training. The WMF is launching a project with Iraq to preserve the ancient city of Babylon, where King Nebuchadnezzar II, whose life spanned 630-562 B.C., built his hanging gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

“We are involving the local populace in the solutions to create a sustainable situation,” said Jeff Allen, the project team leader. “What you don’t want to do is develop something that outsiders are just going to profit from. You want something where the local populace benefits from it.”

“Future tourism will be one of the tools for economic development in Iraq, and we fear that Babylon could be eaten up by unmanaged development like the paving of roads,” World Monuments President Bonnie Burnham stated at the beginning of the project. “The city has never been mapped, and there have been very dramatic changes to it.”