Interactive · long-read
Mosul's Heritage Reborn
Manuscripts, shrines, monuments, the minaret. What the city has reclaimed since 2017.
Manuscripts, shrines, monuments, the minaret. What the city has reclaimed since 2017.
The story of what Mosul lost between 2014 and 2017 is well known. The story of what the city has begun to put back — slowly, by hand, with patience — is not. This story map walks through nine chapters of restoration, each one a sliver of a longer recovery.
What's inside
9 chapters · scroll through, or open the interactive at the top.
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01
The Al-Nuri Mosque · the rebuilding begins
The minaret rises again — slowly, faithfully.
3 min -
02
The Al-Tāhirah Cathedral
A Syriac Catholic cathedral, restored vault by vault.
2 min -
03
Mar Toma the Apostle
The Syriac Orthodox church returns to service.
2 min -
04
The covered sūqs of Old Mosul
Sūq al-Saray and Sūq al-Najjārīn rebuilt as before.
3 min -
05
The Mosul Central Library
A million books, lost — and the long work of return.
2 min -
06
Bayt al-Tutunjī
The 19th-century courtyard house, restored.
1 min -
07
The Mosul Museum
Assyrian and Hatra galleries — what was saved.
2 min -
08
The Tomb of Jonah
The mound, the mosque, the long argument over what to rebuild.
2 min -
09
The city walks again
Nineveh Street reopens. The shops come back. The trees grow.
1 min
A note from the historian
Why we built this
When we began writing about destruction in 2014, we did not yet have a word for what we hoped would follow. We have the word now. This is heritage reborn — not as it was, but as it is, in the hands of the people who never left.
— Omar Mohammed · Mosul Eye