Historic Site
4/5
Old Quarter of Al-Zubair
Al-Zubair is an ancient historic town situated 15 kilometers southwest of central Basra in southern Iraq. Founded in the 7th century CE near the original battlefield of the Battle of the Camel and named after Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a prominent companion of Prophet Muhammad, the town grew into a vital desert trading post between Arabia and Mesopotamia. Famous for its distinctive 18th and 19th-century Najdi-style mud-brick mansions, wooden overhang balconies (shanashol), and narrow shaded alleys, the crumbling Old Quarter is revered in local Basra folklore for supernatural encounters, phantom camel caravans, and weeping specters lingering in abandoned mud-brick courtyards.