Mosul is mostly generally known as a battleground, not a vacationer vacation spot.
The town was famously captured by Islamic State fighters in June 2014, teeing up years of battle between militants and the Iraqi Armed Forces.
However after it was lastly liberated in July 2017, locals set about reshaping the general public picture of this much-maligned metropolis.
Now even vacationers are coming to remain.
"I used to be certain I'd discover a very pure nation, not ruined by mass tourism,” says Yvette Carnell, a first-time customer from Portugal.
“I all the time wished to see what had occurred right here and to higher perceive it. It’s very shifting to come back to Mosul and see how persons are coping with it, how they're getting again to life."
An historical metropolis beset by conflict
These guests have been a number of the first to take part within the free guided excursions - a brand new initiative aimed toward drawing vacationers to Iraq’s second largest metropolis.
The excursions are run by volunteers who communicate English as their second language. In addition to the free excursions, the group gives transportation and conventional meals in native eating places.
"What we're engaged on now's advertising tourism within the metropolis to draw many vacationers, whether or not from inside Iraq or overseas vacationers from overseas,” says Ayoub Dhanoun, head of Mosul Heritage, the group behind the excursions.
“We began working free of charge to advertise town to point out that it's secure and capable of obtain vacationers."
Throughout their time within the metropolis, guests are launched to the distinctive structure of the city centre. Full with bustling marketplaces and Twelfth-century buildings, the scars of conflict are beginning to heal on this historic a part of the Center East.
Non-governmental organisations like UNESCO have invested massive sums of cash within the metropolis’s Previous City, providing hope that at some point, Mosul can return to its former glory.
"The concept involves Portugal is nearly conflict and nothing else,” says Rui Barbosa Batista, a vacationer visiting Iraq.
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“Coming right here, the concept is to assist to deconstruct this type of concept. It is to point out individuals is that it is secure to journey right here, persons are good, the Center East shouldn't be a bunch of terrorists. It’s filled with regular individuals like in all places else on the earth, with the identical goals and the identical wishes."
As a part of a wider effort to advertise tourism within the nation, Iraq has now eliminated the pre-arrival visa requirement for residents from 37 nations, together with the US, UK and EU nations.
Watch the video above to search out out extra about visiting Mosul.
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