iraq

1. In Arabic, ‘Iraq’ means ‘deeply rooted, well-watered, and fertile’. This name has been in use since before the sixth century.

2. The country is home to the world’s earliest system of writing, cuneiform script, with characteristics including different wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets. It was invented by the Sumerians and was first used around the 31st century BC.

3. The common superstition of being afraid of black cats originally began here.

4. The Martyr’s Monument (al-Shaheed Monument) in Baghdad was constructed in the memory of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi soldiers who died in the Iran-Iraq War. Shaped like an egg split open with an “eternal flame” in the middle, it houses the names, weapons, and clothing of some of the soldiers.

5. The oldest-known system of writing was developed around 3200 B.C, in Iraq and is known as cuneiform. What makes it unique is that instead of the alphabet, it used around 600 signs with each sign denoting a particular syllable or word.