UNESCO announced on Wednesday that next March will witness the start of the reconstruction of the Al-Hadba Lighthouse, one of the most famous monuments in Mosul, which was destroyed in 2017 during the battles against the terrorist organization “Daesh”, in addition to the reconstruction of two archaeological churches in the city in northern Iraq, in partnership with the United Arab Emirates.
Officials at the city’s Directorate of Antiquities told AFP in January that excavation teams had discovered beneath the al-Nuri mosque, topped by a humpback Lighthouse, the floors of an ancient twelfth-century chapel.
The mosque and its lighthouse Al-Hadba were destroyed in June 2017 during battles between Iraqi forces and the organization “Daesh” by explosives placed by terrorists inside the mosque, according to the Iraqi army.
Visit Azoulay
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said in a statement Wednesday that “after three years of intensive preparatory work, UNESCO, in partnership with the United Arab Emirates, will be ready to begin the reconstruction of the Al-Hadba Minaret and the churches of Al-Houra and Al-Tahra next March”.
The joint announcement by UNESCO and the United Arab Emirates, which is co-financing the project to restore the Lighthouse, the mosque and the two churches, followed a visit to Mosul this week by Ernesto Otoni Ramirez, UNESCO’s assistant director-general for Cultural Affairs.
“Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, will travel to Mosul specifically to launch these works,”the statement quoted Ramirez as saying.
As for the al-Nuri Mosque, its reconstruction is scheduled to begin “between late June and early July”, with the whole work to be completed by the end of 2023, a UNESCO official told AFP on Wednesday.
Historical center
In addition to The ترميم 50 million restoration of these monuments, the project includes the reconstruction of 122 historic houses in the Old City, with بتمويل 38.5 million in funding from the European Union.
The source said that the reconstruction of some 60 of these houses will be completed in March during the visit of the director-general of UNESCO.
“The historic center will begin to come back to life in the spring,”he added.
The UNESCO statement attributed the long period of preparatory work to “the demining operation from the four sites that suffered significant damage from booby traps, hazardous materials and unexploded ordnance”.
After the demining, “clearance operations began, which were not limited to the removal of old stones; precious pieces were found in the rubble that could be reused during the reconstruction phase,”he said. The city of Mosul has many important monuments.