Cultural Tourism.

Cultural Tourism will become Iraq`s second biggest industry after oil. The government of Iraq is moving forward with plans to protect the archaeological remains of the ancient City of Babylon, in preparation for building a modern city of Babylon.

The project is aimed at attracting scores of `cultural tourists` from all over the world to see the glories of Mesopotamia`s most famous city.

The Babylon International Festival has a goal to relaunch art, culture and even the economy of Iraq by making Babylon a showcase of a new Iraq, a must-see tourist attraction for visitors from all over the world.

By July 2019, so much progress had been made that Babylon was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The government is going to convert the Palace Saddam built into a museum.  

Thousands of people reside in Babylon, within the perimeter of the ancient outer city walls, and communities in and around them are rapidly developing from compact dense settlements to sprawling suburbia.

Most residents primarily depend on daily wage earning or have government jobs in Al-Hillah, (close by) while few cultivate dates, citrus fruits, figs, fodder for livestock and limited cash crops, although income from the land alone is not enough to sustain a family.

The Lion of Babylon in History

The Lion of Babylon, a 2,600-year-old black basalt statue of a lion trampling a man, is among the most celebrated archeologically artifacts in the history of Iraq.

The first sculpture to be rediscovered in Babylon in the late eighteenth century, the basalt lion is believed to have been taken from a Neo-Hittite city in Syria to be finished in Babylon.