I have been working with the World Monument Fund in Iraq since 2018. My annual visits to this ancient country are perhaps a record of a nation recovering from a catastrophic period of destruction. While there are many books written about post-conflict reconstruction, nothing prepares one for the level of loss.

Mosul, where I am currently working, lies at the edge of the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh on the banks of the river Tigris and has been continuously inhabited since around the 7th century BC. Nineveh is where some scholars believe the Hanging Gardens of Babylon once flourished, and where the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal ruled (669–631 BC) with his extensive library, celebrated at a recent British Museum exhibition.

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