Walking towards the Great Mosque of Kufa after passing the fake bomb detector test. Built in the 7th century, the mosque contains the remains of Muslim ibn ‘Aqīl (first cousin of Imam Husayn ibn Ali), his companion Hani ibn Urwa and the revolutionary Mukhtar al-Thaqafi.


Previous Western visitors have been denied entry to the mosque, but Raad approached the security personnel and with his usual politeness, friendliness and charm and managed to convince them to allow us entry.

After storing our shoes, cameras and phone, we entered into the mosque and visited the holy shrines.

The Mosque is revered for many reasons, including being the location where Ali, the cousin and the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, was killed with a poison-coated sword while prostrating in prayer.

We then retreated to the shaded edge of the main courtyard and sat down on the carpet and enjoyed the solemn and peacful ambience (Photo by David Stanley, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0).


After our visit to the Great Mosque we drove into the city of Najaf and checked into the Golden Star Hotel just after 2pm.


And my room for our one night in Najaf.


At about 4pm we met up in the lobby and headed out for a walk to Imam Ali Mosque.


Khubz Shakar Al Ghadir (bread of thanksgiving).


A poster with religious figures along with soldiers killed in the battle against ISIS.