The role of the cultural heritage of the Upper Euphrates regions in ?bringing about development

2022-04-27

Dr. Omar Yasseen Neda

Head of human resources department

Upper Euphrates Basin Development Center / University of Anbar ‎

‎ In an era marked by modernization, urbanization, and intellectual growth, a country's cultural legacy is the primary means of conveying shared principles, assets, and sustaining the communal fabric that was established centuries ago and passed down through generations. ‎‎

Today, we ‎find folk tales that inspire nostalgia for the past and draw us to ancestor’s ‎who had imprints of pride and pride. We also find it in hundreds of ‎archaeological monuments that are spread in the areas of the upper ‎Euphrates, presenting themselves as a means of communication between ‎the past and the present.‎

Because the urban heritage as defined by the first item of the draft ‎charter for the preservation of urban heritage in the Arab countries: “It is all ‎that man built from cities, villages, neighbourhoods, buildings and gardens ‎of historical, archaeological, architectural, urban, economic, historical, ‎scientific, cultural or functional value.‎ The preservation of this urban wealth, some of which dates back thousands of years, is a matter for which efforts must join hands, because it is of great importance in expressing the identity of these regions and their cultural affiliation and their contributions to the development of human civilizations, these regions are part of ancient civilizations such as Babylon and Ashur that have given much for mankind.

Recognizing this importance and what these archaeological sites can ‎offer to promote tourism activity and its role in bringing about social and ‎economic transformations that in themselves constitute a base for ‎development, and thus activate one of the basic activities through which ‎they provide permanent job opportunities that achieve the economic and ‎security stability that these areas need.‎

In this field, researchers and economists agree that cultural tourism ‎has a major and pivotal role in reviving the economy and achieving ‎development. Since 1985, tourism has become the largest industry in the ‎world, according to United Nations statistics, due to its contribution to ‎stimulating other economic activities, which in turn opens the door to the ‎growth of tourism investments. Which would achieve dispensing with ‎importing many goods and services related to this industry, in addition to ‎being an important source for bringing in hard currencies, whose role is ‎reflected in moving the wheel of the economy.‎ ‎).‎

There is no doubt that the archaeological sites in the areas of the ‎upper Euphrates are not isolated from their matching part throughout Iraq, as ‎they suffer as a whole from neglect for various factors, including the ‎obsolescence of time, lack of awareness of their importance and failure to ‎highlight them as archaeological monuments by the competent authorities, ‎which made them vulnerable to transgression, as well as what he was ‎exposed to. Some of them were destroyed during the military operations ‎that these areas witnessed for two decades, all of that and others led to the ‎fading of many of them and the disappearance of others, but what remained ‎is a figure that tells stories of the past and testifies to the creativity of its ‎people, and calls out the efforts and capabilities of this province to pay ‎attention and do a lot to save it and make it a destination for tourists and ‎science students.

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