[MSN] FW: [Iraqcrisis] Jeff Emanuel photographs new security construction at Samarra

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Jeff Emanuel, journalist embedded with the 82nd airborne division,
posted a photo of a new barracks being built on the archaeological site
at Samarra a couple of days ago:

http://jeffemanuel.blogspot.com/2007/09/picture-of-day-92107.html

"Iraqi contractors work on the new National Police barracks and training
center north of Samarra. When finished, the center will house (and serve
as the operations center for) over 1,500 Iraqi and National Police. The
52-meter high Spiral Minaret of the Great Samarran Mosque (built in 852
AD), once the largest mosque in the world, looms in the background. The
minaret, located in the northwestern part of the city, is the dominant
terrain feature in the area, visible from kilometers away in every
direction."

He writes:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/157bqwur.a
sp?pg=2

"This problem [of al-Qa'ida] is being addressed in one way with the
construction of a massive new National Police barracks and training
center just north of
the western end of the city, which will also serve as an operating base
for 1,500 new ISF personnel when they begin arriving in Samarra later
this month. Adding to that increase in numbers will be 800 more NPs, who
in November will move to Patrol Base Uvanni when that compound is
refurbished and expanded. Both jobs are being carried out by Iraqi
workers, who are overseen by an extremely competent Baghdadi contractor."

 From the angle of the photo, it is possible to calculate that the
complex is being built at E 396388 N 3785995 (UTM Zone 38 North) or Lat.
34.209760° Long. 43.875325°, to the west of the Malwiya (Spiral 
Minaret), and behind the Spiral Cafe. While the point itself may not 
have more than Abbasid houses under the ground, it is adjacent to the 
palace of Sur Isa, the remains of which can be seen in the photo. While 
the initial construction might or might not touch the palace, 
accompanying activities will certainly spread over it.

Sur Isa can be identified with the palace of al-Burj, built by the
Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil, probably in 852-3 (Northedge, Historical
Topography of Samarra, pp 125-127, 240). The palace is said to have cost
33 million dirhams, and was luxurious. Details are given by
al-Shabushti, Kitab al-Diyarat.

Samarra was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO at the end of June. 
The barracks could easily have been built elsewhere, off the 
archaeological site.

-- 
Alastair Northedge
Professeur d'Art et d'Archéologie Islamiques
UFR d'Art et d'Archéologie
Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne)
3, rue Michelet,
75006 Paris
tél. 01 53 73 71 08
télécopie : 01 53 73 71 13
Email : Alastair.Northedge at univ-paris1.fr ou anorthedge at wanadoo.fr