Iraq’s $2 Breakfast That Fuels 20 Million Pilgrims!!

0:00 I'm about to eat the most famous Iraqi kebabs in Karbala.

0:03 And along with trying one of the best kebabs I've ever had in my life.

0:08 That kebab just melts in your mouth.

0:10 We'll find [music] out why over 20 million pilgrims visit Karbala every year.

0:17 You could just stand in here in awe.

0:26 Try some of the local street food.

0:30 And later on we'll find out what it's like to visit the ancient city of Babylon.

0:35 But first, what is Iraq's breakfast of champions?

0:39 And this is the spot for a special breakfast dish this morning.

0:43 So we're at a local restaurant and we came

0:45 here to eat a dish which is called Bagillid Belbihan.

0:49 Belbihan.

0:50 And it's a local, especially a breakfast dish in Iraq.

0:53 They have the You can hear the raging fire going in the background.

0:56 It's like a jet flame that they cook it on.

0:58 We're going to see how they prepare it.

1:01 The fire is absolutely blazing.

1:04 Okay, so it all begins with bread.

1:06 Oh, he chucks it into the soup.

1:08 And that's like a a broth from fava beans.

1:11 This is quite a dish and it's quite incredible, impressive to see it being made.

1:15 But he takes the whole uh sheets of bread.

1:18 He dunks them into fava bean juice.

1:20 It's like the broth of fava beans.

1:22 He soaks them.

1:23 Then he puts it into your bowl and kind of does a hand

1:25 massage and squeezes it and breaks it up saturated with the fava bean juice.

1:29 Then he adds on the fava beans on top of that.

1:32 Then he heats up some molten ghee, so like uh butter.

1:36 He heats up the butter, the ghee,

1:38 until it's molten hot and then he pours that on.

1:41 And then after that he cooks an omelet and puts an omelet on top.

1:45 Oh, now he's making like 10 in a row.

1:55 Wow, that's a hot fire.

2:00 Woah.

2:02 Flip over the egg.

2:06 Got to the omelet.

2:09 Wow, that is so hot.

2:15 What a dish and it's quite a a quite a more omelet goes on top.

2:20 But just sizzling on my Look at that that omelet is boiling.

2:23 This one is ours.

2:26 Oh, we got extra omelet.

2:28 Yes.

2:29 Wow.

2:30 Shukran.

2:31 I think that one is ours.

2:35 So we're sitting down.

2:35 This is a very popular breakfast spot breakfast dish and it

2:39 looks so hearty and I've never seen this exact procedure done before.

2:43 I love how they soak the bread in the bean juice.

2:45 Served with onions, served with the are these the orange lemons?

2:49 The orange lemons?

2:49 And they use I guess you add so much

2:51 that they even give you a juicer on your table.

2:54 Okay.

2:55 Muhammad, how should we start?

2:58 Oh, first squeeze on.

2:59 Oh, amazing.

3:01 I love the Iraqi lemon orange hybrids.

3:05 It's like the sourness of lemon plus the fragrance of an orange.

3:10 So reach down.

3:11 Oh, I'm going to go more mostly for that bread and fava beans first.

3:17 Oh, it's like fully saturated.

3:19 The bread is just broken down into like juiciness with the fava beans.

3:33 Oh.

3:36 The starchiness of the beans.

3:40 The bread has absorbed all that broth.

3:43 The bean broth and then you really taste the scorch of that ghee on top that's

3:47 just been heated to such a hot level that it just like scorches it scorches it,

3:53 and that brings out the flavor.

3:55 That's very good.

3:56 Very good.

3:57 Then you can mix it with the omelet.

3:58 You can chase with the onions.

4:00 Let's see what Muhammad does.

4:02 Oh, he adds some of the onions to the bite,

4:04 and then that gives you like that refreshing touch.

4:07 Okay, for this one, I'll grab some of the omelet to pair with that.

4:11 Omelet with the onion.

4:13 Oh.

4:23 Mhm.

4:27 That's good.

4:28 Saturated in the ghee and oil.

4:33 So hearty.

4:34 This is the type of dish that will give you energy for the entire day.

4:38 So, we're adding on another thing.

4:39 Chef never heard of it, but it's called betony or lamb's ear.

4:42 It's an herb, and it has this almost chamomile aroma to it, but it's not.

4:47 It's betony or lamb's ear.

4:49 And that's also supposed to aid in the digestion of the the fava beans.

4:52 That's going to another variation to try.

4:55 Okay, let's try it with the the lamb's ear.

4:58 Anything that's called lamb's ear, I'm happy to try.

5:04 Even though it's an herb.

5:09 Yeah, it gives you like this kind of bright floral flavor.

5:15 Very good, yeah.

5:16 That gives it a different a different herbal touch.

5:24 Very good.

5:25 What a breakfast.

5:26 Yeah, that is seriously good dish.

5:32 And I love how creamy those fava beans are.

5:39 Shukran.

5:42 That's the pro move.

5:43 Follow with the onion.

5:45 Muhammad hooking it up.

5:49 It's a breakfast of champions.

6:05 It is great and a very popular place.

6:08 It's packed now.

6:12 And then with every good Iraqi meal, you've got to finish with tea.

6:18 It's an absolute must and strong Iraqi tea as well.

6:22 Oh, it's so soothing.

6:24 What a breakfast.

6:24 I loved it.

6:25 It's such a good dish.

6:26 It's simple, but it's tasty and it's so filling.

6:34 Shukran.

6:36 Shukran.

6:37 Very good.

6:37 Shukran.

6:39 And again, the owner absolutely refused to take our payment.

6:44 Such a nice guy.

6:46 Top service.

6:47 Top breakfast.

6:48 For the breakfast of champions when you're in Karbala, this is the spot.

6:54 [music] And we're on our way to visit the shrine of Imam Hussein,

7:07 which is the center point of Karbala.

7:10 It's a pilgrimage destination.

7:12 People come from all over the world to visit and to pay respect to Imam Hussein

7:18 and that's also why Karbala is known as being

7:22 one of the holiest cities in Shia Islam.

7:25 And we're just getting our first glimpse

7:26 of the shrine with the golden dome shimmering, shining in the morning light.

7:32 And as we approach, there's just more and more people.

7:35 And one of the cool things is they have a lot of guys with push carts,

7:37 so you can hire them to push you all the way to to shrine.

7:40 Transportation because it's all pretty much foot traffic here.

7:45 This whole area, there's a grand bazaar surrounding it with shopping,

7:50 with food, and then the entire area's home to two different shrines,

7:54 but the main one is Imam Hussein who

7:56 was actually the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad,

7:59 and he was the son of Imam Ali who uh we

8:03 visited yesterday in Najaf where you can visit the shrine in Najaf.

8:08 And just this entire area you can feel the the energy

8:13 and the buzz people all the time 24 hours a day.

8:17 The mosaic and the architecture,

8:19 the colors really impressive everywhere you look.

8:24 So, we've arrived kind of to the center.

8:26 There's actually two shrines here,

8:28 uh but it's one of the main pilgrimage destinations,

8:31 one of the biggest pilgrimage destinations in the world.

8:41 Wow, I'll step inside.

8:43 It's already incredible.

8:46 The architecture and arches,

8:48 the turquoise and all the geometric patterns and shapes.

8:56 So, you step inside and it's kind of the outer before you get to the shrine,

9:00 the outer area of worship.

9:03 And just you could just stand in here.

9:06 The geometric [music] patterns and Islamic calligraphy.

9:12 The chandeliers, it's impressive, breathtaking.

9:17 Wow.

9:23 [music] Oh, here's the shrine.

9:33 And now here's the shrine of Imam [music]

9:39 Inside the mausoleum is absolutely breathtaking.

9:43 And again, like I mentioned yesterday at Najaf,

9:45 no matter what you believe or what religion you are,

9:48 it's a place of spirituality.

9:50 It's a place that will move you.

9:53 This There's also a lot of significance here because of the Battle of Karbala.

9:58 He was also a symbol of human rights and a fight for justice.

10:12 Also, within the shrine, actually just outside the shrine,

10:15 there's a central kitchen where they serve free meals.

10:18 And actually, a lot of people offer meals

10:22 to people all the time throughout the year, especially during the festivals.

10:26 And so, they have a dining room on the other side,

10:28 but then this is the takeaway station in the dining room.

10:30 I think we're not able to film there,

10:32 so we decided to get a takeaway and try the complimentary meal from the shrine,

10:37 which is going to be really special.

10:39 Got the the whole meal combination comes with a piece of bread, a bread,

10:44 a roll, plus the main dish, and then also a soda on the side.

10:47 And ready for the the reveal of the main dish of the day.

10:51 Okay, it's like a fish.

10:53 Fish today.

10:53 Fish with rice.

10:54 The kind man who helped us and got us the meal,

10:56 he was saying that every day it's a different menu.

10:58 It's Today we got it's like a fried fish with rice.

11:01 All right.

11:06 [laughter] Oh, that fish is really good.

11:10 Yeah.

11:11 Nice and salty with that batter around it.

11:14 Probably turmeric making it yellow.

11:16 Then all that flavor absorbs into the rice as well.

11:21 It's not only a meal, but it's a meal that's blessed at the shrine,

11:25 and it's a meal that symbolizes the Iraqi

11:27 hospitality and sharing what you have with everyone.

11:34 So, throughout the lanes of the bazaar surrounding the shrine,

11:38 there's market where you can buy just about

11:39 everything and there's a lot of fast food snacks.

11:41 People coming on the go, something to eat, fast food.

11:45 Uh so, I decided to try this falafel stall here.

11:48 Actually, he has a bunch of different fast foods,

11:49 but I'm going to try his falafel.

11:52 Okay, so he grabs the grabs the bread.

11:55 First in goes some of the the salad.

11:59 Drops in a falafel.

12:01 Oh, some of that the fries as well.

12:04 Some more salad.

12:05 Maybe we got to get that the sauce.

12:07 Yes.

12:10 Amba sauce.

12:10 Okay, shukran.

12:13 So, it's served in the Iraqi samoon bread with the falafel and the amba sauce,

12:16 which is um it's a mango sauce, which is very popular to eat with falafel.

12:21 And then there's also some pickles here.

12:22 I'll go for some pickles.

12:24 And then you got the salad,

12:25 you got the falafel down here, the fries and everything.

12:36 I love the Iraqi amba sauce.

12:38 That sour mango with the spices.

12:40 It's so good.

12:41 Has this almost like bitter complexity to it with this sweetness.

12:45 Okay.

12:46 But, you know all the falafel is stuck down in the bottom there.

12:49 You got to get to the falafel.

12:54 Now, I got a nice bite of the falafel with the fries in there.

12:56 Well, Iraqi falafel is usually chickpeas.

12:59 Yeah, it's got a taste that crispiness, that crumbliness of the chickpeas,

13:02 but it's that amba sauce that really makes it for me.

13:10 And the Iraqi bread, too.

13:11 The samoon bread is really good.

13:14 It's kind of thick and chewy.

13:16 So, it really holds a lot.

13:18 Yeah, it's affordable, it's tasty.

13:20 It's filling.

13:22 Really good.

13:23 Oh, and he has firewood burning.

13:25 The tea stall.

13:27 Oh, that fire would feel great.

13:28 Okay.

13:29 Shukran.

13:32 Oh, the fire feels really nice.

13:34 But, right next to where I ate the falafel,

13:35 he has a tea stall and he's burning logs there keeping the the tea hot.

13:41 Again, after every meal, you need a cup of tea.

13:45 Oh, it's good.

13:46 Love it.

13:47 I love the tea culture, the hospitality that goes with it.

13:51 Oh, man.

13:52 Shukran.

13:53 Thank you very much.

13:54 Shukran.

13:54 Shukran.

13:55 Oh, man.

13:55 He was so nice as well.

13:56 Again, he wouldn't let us pay for the tea.

14:01 And that's some quality strong tea.

14:07 [music] I wasn't going to leave Karbala without

14:08 trying a legendary iconic restaurant for kebabs.

14:11 So, we're going to try kebabs quickly for lunch

14:14 and then after that we're going to head on to Babylon.

14:18 We made it to the legendary Al Sayed Kebab.

14:21 This is one of the most famous kebab shops in all of Karbala.

14:25 And you just look at the cabinet full of lamb, full of sheep.

14:29 And then they have a whole another cabinet full of the sheep

14:31 organs as well with the caul fat, with the liver.

14:33 And then there's just people hanging out all over.

14:35 There's grills going, there's tea stalls.

14:38 This is a kebab paradise.

14:40 Yeah, it's action-packed energy.

14:42 All the organs, the liver, the caul fat is ready.

14:44 That's going to be served on a tray.

14:45 And then on the other side is where they're making the minced meat kebabs.

14:48 But, this is the organ section.

14:50 All the fresh liver.

14:51 This is all lamb?

14:53 All lamb.

14:54 Sheep liver.

14:56 Okay.

14:56 Liver goes on.

14:57 Caul fat goes on.

15:00 Oh, that caul fat is just scorching in the fire.

15:04 Very good.

15:05 Very good.

15:06 It's good?

15:08 Very good.

15:10 Hello.

15:10 How are you?

15:11 Very good.

15:11 Thank you.

15:12 So, they're making all the bread.

15:14 Everything is made fresh.

15:16 Look at him.

15:17 He slaps out that bread onto the pillow, into the tanoor.

15:22 Okay.

15:23 Shukran.

15:24 Check run.

15:25 Welcome.

15:26 Thank you.

15:26 Okay, and now we move over to the kebabs.

15:30 Look at this mountain.

15:31 Everything is They're getting ready to serve kebabs by the masses.

15:34 Now the kebab master.

15:36 So once they mix up that Yes, hello.

15:39 Check run.

15:40 Check run.

15:40 Thank you very much.

15:45 You can see that mix of meat is quite fatty as well.

15:49 Quite a heavy amount.

15:50 Yes.

15:50 It's meat and beef.

15:52 Meat and beef?

15:52 Oh.

15:55 Oh, all the lambs are just stacked up.

16:00 Wow.

16:01 Okay.

16:03 An insanely hot fire.

16:05 Burn off your hands.

16:07 You have to have iron hands, man.

16:10 Oh, that fire is raging hot.

16:12 And those kebabs, yeah, they're just slicing up.

16:14 They have all the lamb is just lined up.

16:17 They're grinding them fresh with a lot of fat

16:19 and then making the kebabs directly on the hot coals.

16:22 And then it They They serve it with with all the all the condiments,

16:26 with the parsley, with the lemon oranges, with the tomatoes, charred tomatoes.

16:31 Oh, and the tomatoes.

16:33 Chopping the tomatoes.

16:35 The juiciness of the tomatoes that has to be served at the kebab.

16:38 Here's the man, the friendly man in charge

16:40 of serving up the roasted chilies and roasted onions.

16:43 Okay.

16:44 Check run.

16:47 This place is action packed again.

16:49 A massive sized bread.

16:52 You could hide behind her.

16:54 It's almost like a mask of bread.

16:56 Huge bread, freshly baked.

16:58 The kebabs served on the tray.

17:00 Can't wait to try this.

17:01 This is Oh, this is pure meat happiness and overjoy.

17:05 Oh, I love how the bread is thin and crispy.

17:08 I'll go in for the kebab first.

17:09 Oh.

17:10 Oh, you can see how juicy it is, how crumbly it is.

17:14 Kebab goes in the center.

17:15 You got to add in some of that juicy tomato.

17:18 Oh, the Iraqi way of eating kebabs is some of the best.

17:20 Then you add in a little bit of the parsley.

17:23 You add in a piece of the onion.

17:26 And then from there you can also squeeze it the lemon orange,

17:27 but first let's try it on its own first.

17:42 Oh, wow.

17:45 That kebab just melts in your mouth.

17:49 It actually requires no chewing.

17:51 It just collapses and crumbles with the fatty flavor of the lamb and the beef.

17:57 I think he said it's a mixture of lamb and beef.

18:00 That char of the fire so it's crispy on the outside.

18:03 The juicy acidity of the tomato and the crunch of the onion.

18:06 And then the bread is so good.

18:07 It has that crispiness as well.

18:09 Iraqi kebabs are just mind-blowingly tasty.

18:19 The juice of the tomato just goes down your goes down your hand.

18:23 That's how juicy the tomatoes are.

18:33 The sheep liver.

18:34 Oh.

18:35 And again, the same procedure.

18:37 Every bite needs to be dressed in tomatoes and parsley.

18:43 Little squeeze of the the lemon orange.

19:00 The taste of freshness, the sweetness of that liver.

19:05 Again, grilled over flames so it's really hot fire.

19:09 So it scorches on outside keeping the inside moist and juicy.

19:13 Not dried out at all.

19:15 Cooked perfectly.

19:16 Really clean flavor.

19:19 I sprinkled on some salt on the end as well.

19:21 That also brings out the flavor.

19:27 You're going to get juicy, that's for sure.

19:30 The juiciness of the tomato.

19:32 We can also taste with some of the pickles as well.

19:36 I love how in Iraq the rich meats are also

19:41 always served with something to balance acidity from pickles or lemons,

19:47 onions, parsley, tomato.

19:50 It all goes together in a perfect harmony.

19:52 Now we have to try the fat.

19:55 Oh, this one's not actually the caul fat though.

19:57 I think they they changed me.

20:01 I think which time grilling the caul fat,

20:02 but now he's he gave us like some of the pure lamb fat.

20:06 These are like the chunks the chunks of lamb fat.

20:09 I think we got to go for this one pure.

20:19 Yeah.

20:20 I don't think there's any more pure lamb flavor than the flavor of the fat.

20:25 That is the pinnacle of lamb eating.

20:29 The fat.

20:30 It's so rich.

20:31 It's so like juicy and liquidy.

20:37 That definitely needs to be followed by some onion.

20:43 Everything here though is superb.

20:52 Look at the way that just the crispiness on the top,

20:55 the caramelization, that fat crispifying, the juicy interior.

21:02 Oh, when you squeeze it in your hands you can

21:03 actually see like a lamb fat like like oozing out.

21:27 That's just pure kebab happiness.

21:33 Ah, and it happened again.

21:35 The owners, they refused to take payment.

21:38 Uh, they're so friendly, so hospitable.

21:40 What a spot.

21:41 And this place is without a doubt one of the great kebab restaurants of Karbala,

21:46 a place you have to come when you're here.

21:48 It is so good.

21:49 Okay, but from here, we're jumping into the car.

21:52 We have about, uh, I think it's about an hour drive,

21:54 and we're on our way to Babylon.

22:10 I actually fell asleep in the car after that kebab, but welcome to Babylon.

22:14 [music] We've made it to the ancient city of Babylon and the famous Ishtar Gate,

22:20 but this is a replica behind me of the Ishtar Gate.

22:22 I think the original gate is now at a museum in Berlin.

22:26 So, this is just a replica,

22:28 but the Ishtar Gate with its signature mud bricks painted in bright blue.

22:34 Yeah, hello.

22:35 Mr.

22:35 Muhammad will be our guide today at in Babylon.

22:38 Okay, thank you.

22:40 This is a new gate, not original.

22:42 Okay.

22:42 We will see original one up of the site and the other one like this.

22:46 Now in Germany.

22:47 Why in Germany?

22:48 German came to Babylon in 1902 like expedition for excavation.

22:53 So, they took many monuments from Babylon.

22:55 They took a huge gate like this one.

22:57 It is called Ishtar Gate.

22:59 So, there was Iraqi archaeologist called Taha Baqir decided to build

23:04 this one here in 1958 and finished of the job

23:07 here in 1962 to be nice symbol and to remember

23:11 generation that something like this in Germany that they have.

23:15 So we will see original one up on the side.

23:18 Okay.

23:18 I know the original was even bigger than

23:20 this and it's not even the original location,

23:23 but here we are entering into Babylon.

23:28 The city of Babylon actually dates back some 6,000 years ago,

23:32 but mainly what's still preserved today

23:35 or the ruins that are today uh were built around 600 BC when Babylon was at its

23:40 peak uh under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar.

23:44 And right here, this is an original

23:46 arch built during the time of King Nebuchadnezzar.

23:49 Um but actually the city went way lower here and this is the top of an arch,

23:54 but then Saddam Hussein he actually did renovations above it.

23:58 So you can see these are newer bricks, which of course was very controversial,

24:03 but you can see these original 2,600-year-old

24:07 mud-baked bricks held together by the asphalt.

24:12 Wow.

24:13 And this is a city that uh is probably one of the most well-known,

24:19 most famous cities in all of ancient cities of uh Mesopotamia.

24:24 You can see on the new bricks, these are Saddam Hussein he was also

24:30 copied King Nebuchadnezzar and stamped the bricks.

24:34 So these are Saddam Hussein's bricks.

24:36 The South Wing Palace they are going to build 600 home and five main courtyard.

24:44 Uh the roof by cedar wood and the decoration

24:48 of the walls in that time were ceramic.

24:51 Some of these are now in Germany.

24:53 We will go now to take right direction to see

24:56 if maze and to see what it was in ancient time.

24:59 So, you can see original foundation in new construction 1980.

25:05 Uh they follow the old foundation to make a high wall above the original site.

25:09 Okay.

25:10 So, here you can really clearly see the original the original

25:13 Babylonian bricks and the new the new bricks added that contrast.

25:18 So, we are going through the maze to see storage or cellar underground.

25:25 They say it.

25:25 Maybe it was the place of the garden, but we have another things to talk.

25:30 We are just entering into a a brick tunnel a mud brick tunnel here.

25:36 The cameras of the office and you can see Okay.

25:39 foundation of the wall here.

25:41 The office and we're heading into the the labyrinth or the maze.

25:48 Wow, it really is a a maze back here.

25:50 You could get lost.

25:52 A labyrinth of little narrow alleys of mud brick.

25:59 Wow.

26:00 You can see label.

26:04 And next we're going to go down to see something very special.

26:08 In the history of Babylon we have a famous subject.

26:12 It's called the Garden of Babylon.

26:14 I mean the Hanging Gardens which was one of the seven wonders in the world.

26:18 But where is it today?

26:19 No one knows exactly.

26:21 And it hasn't been proven,

26:23 but it potentially was the site of the the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,

26:27 an ancient wonder of the world.

26:29 And it was down down here.

26:32 And up there.

26:34 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

26:37 And now we're coming into this really high archway down here.

26:42 And the significance of this was that first

26:45 of all it was a storage room for goods and for uh grain and for things is

26:50 to store because it's really cool and it's dark.

26:53 So, these are all just dark like prisoner cellar rooms.

27:00 And there's 14 of them that go down down this hallway.

27:03 And so, yeah, within this it's like a dungeon's dark storage room.

27:09 And Babylon is also an important city mentioned and it is the city where Daniel,

27:17 as well as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

27:20 they were held in captive in the city of Babylon.

27:23 So, Daniel from the lion's den when he was held in captive,

27:25 this is potentially the place where he was held in uh a dark storage room,

27:34 uh which is fortified.

27:36 And also, King Nebuchadnezzar ordered Shadrach, Meshach,

27:39 and Abednego to be thrown into the fiery furnace.

27:42 So, this place has a lot of meaning, a lot of history.

27:50 As soon as you enter into the throne room,

27:51 you can hear your voice kind of echoing,

27:53 but this is one of the most important rooms in Babylon.

27:56 This is where the kings ruled, the throne was here,

27:59 and if you can imagine in its heyday,

28:02 this was decorated with cedars of Lebanon as well as ceramic tiles.

28:07 And one of the most fascinating stories from the Bible,

28:11 from the Old Testament, when Daniel was captive in Babylon,

28:16 uh and King Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and Daniel

28:20 interpreted his dreams right here within this throne hall.

28:25 That is actually unbelievable to think about.

28:30 And yeah, you can actually go up onto the the platform here

28:34 where the king of Babylon would

28:37 sit where Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar's dreams.

28:48 Now, we're just getting a view over the outer palace

28:50 of Babylon and there's more palace another palace in the distance.

28:55 Yeah, you can see the the ruins the all the mud bricks and just over there

29:00 Babylon was formerly on the Euphrates River

29:04 but the Euphrates River has changed course a number

29:07 of times so it's not here anymore but just the the Hilla River and then

29:12 it also in the distance you can see

29:14 the Saddam Hussein Palace which has been abandoned.

29:18 And now we're getting our first view of the lion of Babylon

29:23 and it is 2,600 years old made from black basalt stone.

29:29 It is a Mesopotamian lion defeating an enemy and it's a symbol of the dominance

29:36 and the power of Babylon and it's become one

29:39 of the most iconic statues and symbols of Iraq.

29:46 And now we're coming to the main road the main

29:48 entrance of Babylon and the significance this is still the original

29:52 road with made from mud bricks and asphalt built

29:56 by the Babylonians and you can see the construction and this leads

30:00 to the main gate of Ishtar the original Ishtar gate which

30:04 we're going to see soon but the significance of this road

30:07 is that everyone who came to Babylon passed through

30:09 this road from Daniel to ancient kings to Alexander the Great.

30:17 Everyone has walked this road.

30:21 Wow, that's surreal.

30:24 So to be able to walk on this road is truly an honor.

30:34 That symbolizes the name of the palace?

30:38 With Ishtar Gate.

30:39 Of Ishtar Gate symbolizing the name of the palace

30:42 Babylon And the other one with Ishtar Gate in cuneiform.

30:48 So now we're at the location of the actual the real Ishtar Gate.

30:53 Again, it was a huge gate and it was covered

30:56 in blue bright blue ceramic tiles depicting two different animals one

31:01 of a bull and the other animal which they're not quite sure

31:05 what it is but many people think it was actually a dinosaur.

31:09 At the back side of the Ishtar Gate where you can really

31:11 clearly see the two different animals the bull and potentially the dinosaur.

31:18 But they're really clear here and original.

31:22 That is incredible.

31:26 That was a fascinating tour of the ancient Babylon and it's

31:33 a city with so much history so much complexity and still so

31:36 much more to be discovered but I never thought I'd say

31:39 this but goodbye from Babylon and I hope you enjoyed this video.

31:46 Uh be sure to stay tuned for the next video.

31:47 We're traveling around Iraq eating some of the best food

31:50 and visiting a lot of the historical sites as well.

31:53 So be sure to stay tuned for the next video and goodbye from Babylon.

31:56 I'll see you on the next video.