Najaf

Overview

Najaf is one of the highlights for shiites touring the Iraq. The shrine of Ali with a golden dome that can be seen from 40 km on a clear day. For more tombs, head for Wadi es Salaam, a big graveyard with 'streets', winding through the countless brick and cement tombs, some modest, some the size of small mosque-shrines. Some are gaily painted pink or green; some display photographs of the dead: turbaned graybeards or bright-eyed youngsters with proud moustaches and hair in fashionable quiffs.

Finally you might want to visit the al Yazdi Medresa, a Coranic school with seventy rooms, immensely deep cellars and brick-lined wells that plummet down some one hundred feet. Young divines with beards, cropped hair, skullcaps or turbans, sit about, read, or wash their faces, feet and arms before praying. They are pale from studying away from the sun; many of them come from Afghanistan or Iran!

History