things I love

catherinewillis:

catrinastewart:

Ma-Adan - Iraq

 The marsh dwellers have populated the Edenic wetlands for almost 5000 years. They were an almost completely self sufficient community with the marshes producing everything they needed to survive. Sturdy reeds reaching 20 feet became raw material for homes, baskets and boats, while tender reed shoots provided plentiful forage for water buffalo, who provided milk and dung, used as fuel for fires.

The marsh-dwelling people who in the 1950’s numbered about half a million people, have now dwindled to as few as 20,000 in Iraq. The Edenic wetlands that once gave refuge to a rich variety of wildlife have become lifeless, nearly waterless, salt-encrusted mudflats, since Saddam ordered the water source to be cut off just before he lost power. Today the Eden Again Project is attempting to release water back into the marshes, with the hope that the communities will return to their original site. 

Chemin faisant: Wilfrid Thesiger has written a great book about the Marsh Arabs with lots of photographs of the same ilk than these.

(via goodmemory)