The Madan civilization, also known as the "Marsh Arabs," traced their roots back 5,000 years to the Sumerians. Today, an estimated 10,000 residents remain in the marshes — but tens of thousands ...

A recent UN study has focused new attention on the destruction of southern Iraq's vast marshlands at the heart of the Fertile Crescent. The study calls the loss of the wetlands an ecological ...

Good news for those rebuilding Iraq: Mother Nature has pitched in. Water is returning to the Mesopotamian marshlands, turned into salt-encrusted de ...

Saddam had clashed with the Madan since 1980, when they refused to take part in Iraq's war against Iran. The Madan, who are Shiite Muslims, rebelled for three weeks 12 years ago and were crushed ...

Iraq is losing crucial knowledge about water management as marshland depletion is altering the lifestyle of local women, a paper has warned. The indigenous people of the Hammar Marshes, called Ma’dan, ...

The Madan, Marsh Arabs, live in the marshes in houses built from reeds. The mashuf, a narrow canoe, is the main mode of transportation in a way of life that has changed little in 6,000 years.

NPR's Christopher Joyce reports the marshes of southern Iraq once supported a vibrant culture of "Marsh Arabs," and a thriving ecosystem. Then Saddam Hussein drained the wetlands to destroy a ...

The people who live there now are called Madan and are linguistically and culturally tied to the ancient Sumerians, whose lives were intertwined with the reeds, water, and wildlife in the marshes. The ...

The Cradle of Civilization. Alwash, 52, a citizen of Iraq and the United States, is a hydraulic engineer and the director of Nature Iraq, the country's first and only environmental organization.

SHINANA VILLAGE, Iraq – One by one, the elders raise their hands.“Me.” “Me.” “Me,” they murmur in response to the question: Whose father, brother, son had been executed by Saddam ...