๐ฎ๐ถ Iraq ยท ุงูุนุฑุงู (al-สฟIrฤq)
Writing, the wheel, the city and the law code all have their earliest surviving evidence between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Mesopotamian scenes are mud brick, reed and river โ and dating them means reading the shape of the ziggurat and the script on the tablet.
Iraq's collection needs 3 more rounds before it opens. These are live today.
Iraq is two rivers and the land they built: flat alluvium, palm groves, reed marshes in the south and dry limestone steppe in the north. Almost everything ancient is mud brick, which erodes into mounds โ the tells that dot the plain are cities.
Architecture
Stepped mud-brick platforms with buttressed faces are ziggurats, 2100 BC onwards. Glazed brick in blue with relief animals is Neo-Babylonian, around 600 BC. Spiral minarets and brick muqarnas are Abbasid, 800โ1250. Baghdad's shanasheel โ carved wooden oriel windows over the street โ are Ottoman-era, 1700โ1900.
Landscape
Date palm groves along a levee with flat fields beyond is the southern plain. Reed islands and buffalo in shallow water are the Marshes, drained in the 1990s and partly reflooded after 2003. Rolling dry hills with oak scrub is Kurdistan in the north.
Period tells
Cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals date to before roughly 100 AD. Kufic script on brickwork is 800โ1100. Mid-century concrete and Iraqi modernist civic buildings are the 1950sโ70s oil years, before the wars.
A starting shortlist, oldest first. Every one of these makes a round that Iraqis can nail and everyone else has to work out.
Uruk, southern MesopotamiaAncient world
Accounting marks pressed into clay became cuneiform โ the first writing anywhere, invented to count grain and beer.
BabylonAncient world
Blue-glazed brick with striding lions, aurochs and dragons on the processional way into Nebuchadnezzar's capital.
Round City of BaghdadMedieval
Greek, Persian and Indian mathematics translated and extended โ algebra takes its name from a book written here.
Baghdad, on the TigrisMedieval
The caliphate ended in a week; the chroniclers describe the river running black with ink from the libraries.
BaghdadModern era
The monarchy fell in a morning, and Iraq's oil century turned decisively political.
Iraqi history touches ancient & classical, medieval & renaissance and the 20th century. Each of those eras has a timed round of its own โ the same centuries, but questions drawn from every country in the library, so you find out whether you can date the rest of the period as confidently as you can date Iraq.
Ancient & classical
Iraqi moments here: Uruk writes the first tablets (3200 BC), The Ishtar Gate glazed (575 BC).
Medieval & Renaissance
Iraqi moments here: The House of Wisdom at work (830), The Mongols sack Baghdad (1258).
20th century
Iraqi moment here: The 14 July Revolution (1958).
Dates, order and places from the moments above. Answers are printed underneath โ cover them with a hand if you want to test yourself, or read them out for a quiz round.
1.Uruk writes the first tablets โ what year?
Answer3200 BC
Accounting marks pressed into clay became cuneiform โ the first writing anywhere, invented to count grain and beer.
2.The Ishtar Gate glazed โ what year?
Answer575 BC
Blue-glazed brick with striding lions, aurochs and dragons on the processional way into Nebuchadnezzar's capital.
3.The House of Wisdom at work โ what year?
Answer830
Greek, Persian and Indian mathematics translated and extended โ algebra takes its name from a book written here.
4.The Mongols sack Baghdad โ what year?
Answer1258
The caliphate ended in a week; the chroniclers describe the river running black with ink from the libraries.
5.The 14 July Revolution โ what year?
Answer1958
The monarchy fell in a morning, and Iraq's oil century turned decisively political.
6.Which came first in Iraq โ Uruk writes the first tablets or the Ishtar Gate glazed?
AnswerUruk writes the first tablets, in 3200 BC.
The Ishtar Gate glazed follows in 575 BC, 2625 years later.
7.Which came first in Iraq โ the House of Wisdom at work or the Mongols sack Baghdad?
AnswerThe House of Wisdom at work, in 830.
The Mongols sack Baghdad follows in 1258, 428 years later.
8.Where in Iraq would you drop the pin for Uruk writes the first tablets?
AnswerUruk, southern Mesopotamia
Accounting marks pressed into clay became cuneiform โ the first writing anywhere, invented to count grain and beer.
9.Where in Iraq would you drop the pin for the Ishtar Gate glazed?
AnswerBabylon
Blue-glazed brick with striding lions, aurochs and dragons on the processional way into Nebuchadnezzar's capital.
10.How far apart are the oldest and newest Iraqi moments in this collection?
Answer5,158 years
From Uruk writes the first tablets in 3200 BC to the 14 July Revolution in 1958.
You don't need a photograph or a map reference. Name a moment โ "Uruk writes the first tablets, Uruk, southern Mesopotamia" โ and the builder fills in the year, drops the pin, writes the factoid and paints a 360ยฐ scene you can stand inside. Publish it and it joins this collection for everyone.
Step 1
One line is enough โ an event, a place, a year you half-remember. Or let the AI draft five moments around a theme.
Step 2
The year, the exact coordinates and a one-sentence factoid come back filled in. Everything stays editable.
Step 3
A 4K 360ยฐ panorama of that place in that year, ready to spin around inside the game.
๐ฎ๐ถ Put your own scene on /play/iraq
Credits cover the AI: 1 to auto-fill a moment, 3 to draft five at once, 25 for each 4K panorama. Your map stays yours โ you choose whether it's public, unlisted or private.
Moments Iraqis want to see in the game. Vote them up โ the top of this list gets built next.
Each round drops you into a 360ยฐ scene from Iraq's past. Look around for clues โ architecture, clothing, technology, landscape โ then place the scene on the world map and pick the year. You score up to 5,000 points a round: closer in distance and closer in time both pay. Five rounds make a game.
No. You can play Iraqi rounds straight away with no sign-up. Signing in saves your XP, keeps your character progressing through history, and puts you on the leaderboards.
The collection spans 3200 BC to 1958 โ from uruk writes the first tablets through to the 14 july revolution. New moments are added as the community suggests them.
Yes, completely free. There is no paywall on rounds, the daily challenge, or the leaderboards.
Yes โ that's how the collection grows. Suggest any moment Iraqis would recognise instantly, like uruk writes the first tablets. Approved suggestions get built into playable 360ยฐ rounds and credited on the page.
Daily Challenge
Five fresh rounds every day, same for everyone.
History quizzes
Short quizzes across eras, empires and events.
Community maps
Panorama collections built by other players.
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Every free history game on the site, in one list.