2/14 LHR QMI at the Ziggurat of Ur
Sun 24 Sep 2006Three things caught my attention when I saw this image which I rescued from the rubble of Ben’s deleted blog.* Don’t panic; it’s an officially-sanctioned photo, originally published on defence.gov.au.
Soldiers from the 2nd/14th Lighthorse Regiment, Queensland Mounted Infantry (2/14 LHR QMI) in front of the Ziggurat of Ur1. Hey! That’s my old unit.
Yep. I was a cavalry troop leader in 2/14 QMI more than 30 years ago. No wonder that picture caught my eye. Of course, in those days the main vehicle we used was the M113. Good luck, fellas!
2. The Ziggurat of Ur
The Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu is an icon of the Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia and dates from 2100 B.C. It has been extensively restored by the Iraqi Dept of Antiquities since it was excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley of the British Museum in the 1920s. It is one of the most intriguing monuments still standing in Iraq. Ur is also said to be the birthplace of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), PBUH.
3. Google Image of the Ziggurat
I wondered if I could find the Ziggurat on Google Maps? Well here it is.
Google Satellite Image of the Ziggurat of Ur
Click on the image above and look at the area around the Ziggurat. Note the excavations of the ancient city.
The Ziggurat is just north of the massive US-operated Tallil air base. Some Australian troops are stationed here. On the satellite image, zoom out a couple of levels and then pan south until you will see the air base. Note the odd crater in the ground, made around the time the previous users were persuaded to leave.
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* As soon as I noticed his blog was deleted, I quickly scoured Google’s cache and recovered what I could before it all goes back into the bit bucket.
September 24th, 2006 at 23:00
*contented sigh* just looking at historical monuments is great. By the looks of things, Ur is in much better condition than the Pyramids… it’s a shame that the Pyramids can’t be restored in the same way.
September 25th, 2006 at 18:01
Good god mate… what the hell have they been feeding those HORSES!!! a diet of IRON?? I guess you can still put your saddle over the main gun…
Photo does look like a recruiting poster…
Cheers
September 25th, 2006 at 21:25
Hi Boff: The Pyramids. You reminded me, on the same day last year (Sep 24 2005), I was actually at the Pyramids for the light & sound show in the evening. I’ll dig out some photos & post them.
Whether to reconstruct or just preserve ancient monuments is always a tough call. We may all like to see what they looked like on the day they were built. But to reconstruct would obliterate the 4000 years of history that has happened to them in the meantime.
Some remarkable preservations have happened too. In the 60’s & 70’s UNESCO spent $40m (a princely sum in those days) rescuing the temples at Abu Simbel and Philae from the rising waters of the Aswan dam. The temples were moved stone by stone and reassembled in EXACTLY the state they were found.
Thanks for the prompt, I can feel the material for a new post coming on.
Neil: I think Australian Cavalry units gave up the horses long ago. In the British Army, however, the Household Cavalry (Prince Harry’s mob) has both an armored division and a mounted regiment for ceremonial stuff.
September 26th, 2006 at 12:35
You know, In the muhajaradin (damned if I know how to pronounce that let alone spell it) in Afganistan, they used horse mounted units to strike at armoured Russian vehicles with around a 30 percent success rate (if you believe the published stuff).
Imagine the effectiveness of a well trained mounted soldier and a decent rocket launcher on broken ground, covered from a ridge by a decent sniper.
There is a lot to be said for the trusty horse. It can still go places no vehicle can go. Given the price of fuel, we may all end up back there
December 12th, 2006 at 13:35
Iraq Diggers silenced - my comments in The Sunday Mail…
Welcome to readers following up my comments in today’s Sunday Mail article “Iraq Diggers silenced” by Lucy Carne. You may be interested in my earlier posts on this topic:
Crackdown on MilBlogs? - Thu 21 Sep 2006
2/14 LHR QMI at…
March 4th, 2007 at 22:22
Aussie base in Iraq WIPED OUT! - by Google…
Last September I wrote this post which included this Google Satellite Image of the Ziggurat of Ur.
Google Satellite Image of the Ziggurat of Ur
The Ziggurat is just north of the massive US-operated Tallil air base in the southern Iraqi province of D…
July 29th, 2009 at 16:25
Hey Fitz, I drove Anaconda and Avalanch at Sanananda, Wacol between 1973 and 1975 - those re-builds were a lot of work. Still, I think I would prefer a Beast to the 8 wheeler in your picture. All the best.