this will be my last video from my two
week trip across iraq and probably the
most important
in this video i visit the city of mosul
a city that was occupied by isis from
2014 to 2017.
a city that had to mourn 40 000 people
in those three short years
men women children whose lives were lost
in the war against isis
with half the city completely destroyed
an 8 million tons of rubble left behind
to clean up
much of it still containing ieds and
bombs that could take up to another 10
years to clear
a beautiful city destroyed
but now thankfully slowly been rebuilt
i don't want to focus on just the
crumbling parts of this city although it
would be easy to do so seeing the level
of devastation in the old town and on
the streets entry niche
instead i would like to make this video
about the amazing people we met
the delicious traditional food to be
found around the city and the city's
incredible recovery to show you why you
should visit this beautiful city if you
ever make it to iraq
[Music]
oh okay guys we are so sad but uh it's
finally time to leave baghdad after an
amazing trip here in southern iraq today
we're actually heading to mosul so we've
called the taxi on uh
karima which is kind of like the iraqi
uber and we're going to be going to the
northern alloy northern garage where the
shared taxis leave from and then
hopefully we're gonna find a car that
will take us to mosul which is about
five or six seriously wish us luck
[Music]
well guys as luck would have it our car
has broken down on the side of a highway
highway that they actually used to call
the highway of death
a lot of uh bombed out buildings sadly
on the side of this highway but
been waiting maybe 30 minutes now we're
at this like truck stop
as our driver was trying to see if the
guy fixing the truck could help us but
then we realized we had gone into it
almost got into a ditch and um
he couldn't reverse because the gear
stick is broken so
all four of us had to get out of the car
and push the car out of the ditch jay
what happened when we were pushing the
car i slipped on a rocket fell face
first before
so guys after about a four or five hour
oh i think it's five or six five or six
hour journey from baghdad we are finally
approaching
the outskirts of mosul city uh we've
gone through a lot of checkpoints and
we're in a new park a car because our
first taxi broke down
um but already what you can see outside
of the devastation that has been left
behind by isis in the city is
just mind-blowing to even see just so
much rubble
so many rocks so much devastation
um i'm gonna show you guys what we're
seeing
[Music]
our first stop in mosul was down by the
river tigris
which gives you a panoramic view of the
old town
and shows you the frightening extent of
the damage
left behind by isis and the war against
them by the us and iraqi military
isis took full control of the old part
of the city while the joint u.s and
iraqi military
would have occupied the side of the city
where we now stand
apart from the fact that you can see the
devastation and the shells of the
building across the river it's almost
hard to believe
the
the conflict that happened here because
it is so peaceful right now if these
beautiful green reeds you've got
ducks and even buffalo swimming in the
river
birds flying around and the river just
looks really beautiful and super green
compared to other places we've been in
iraq
yet right here on the other side of the
river
on the left bank the old city of mosul
it's almost totally destroyed
[Music]
okay we're sitting in this super cute
little cafe here we go
and we are eating
it
and this is a dish
[Music]
thank you for recommending onion minced
meat
okay we're going to try a drink called
which is like basil the city and is that
because the lemon comes from that yeah
yeah still from india originally from
india and the sultan
and so on we're trying the cold one it's
really hot outside today so
albany
kind of reminded me of like uh
[Music]
guys we are really really lucky to be
allowed in here even our guide that
we're currently with hasn't even been in
here so it's pretty amazing that we've
been given permission to come in
and see this ancient minaret and the
mosque and everything that they're
rebuilding so this is the ten thousand
dinar note here in iraq and on it you
have the famous mosul minaret
sadly isis bombed this area and only a
little bit of us is left
[Music]
told us that we can actually walk inside
[Music]
and now we've just come to this
incredibly beautiful street that seems
to have little cafes and souvenir stores
and it's really colorful
and this street is called ali four of
hamam al-mankusha ali for hamam alma
i'm just gonna show you guys how pretty
it is
[Music]
so this is a photo of what this street
used to look like
and i'll show you this little arched
window in a second and i'll also be able
to show you this building at the end
right here you can see the archway that
i just pointed out in the photo
this is the archway
and this is the end building
i think the craziest thing is they did
this in four years like this was four
years ago and that was
absolutely beautiful in this section
oh we're gonna go into this little
souvenir shop called mancusa
[Music]
we have just enjoyed a really refreshing
drink from this beautiful cafe and kind
of cultural heritage house here in mosul
and they've just showed us one room
and on the roof you can actually see a
huge hole that was left from an ied or
airstrike hitting this building they
decided to keep the hole there just as a
reminder of the past and all the
airstrikes between mosul sorry between
isis and the iraqi government either
side of the bank and they also have a
soldier's helmet here which is belonging
to the man who actually died from that
specific airstrike which is pretty
incredible and there's a lot of other
things on the walls behind me a lot of
them are invaluable
beautiful paintings a lot of them they
collected themselves
and other times they were gifted by
people that knew that they would be in
good hands here as it's almost like a
small museum
right now we're going to take a walk
through the old town and we're probably
going to see
quite a lot of buildings that have been
destroyed over the years um but the
buildings you see here on my left behind
me are actually buildings houses that
have been rebuilt by unesco so these
would have been people's houses they're
right next to the old mosque you can see
the minaret there behind me and so you
can see a lot of
new buildings smooth walls and you know
that they've just been rebuilt as we
walked through the old town with othman
and abdullah our guides from visit mosul
official i asked them why they were
giving up their time to show us their
city and to educate people about the
past and present history of mosul
so like last wednesday i also have
talked about these things like most of
the people have a stereotype about this
part of the world and
like especially the media they don't
show a lot of things only wars and bad
things but like still people like living
here and still like we have universities
and me as a medical student and other
like
uh like uh
knowledgeable people and me as one of
them i want to change like other words
perspective uh the word perspective for
this part of the world and
bring what actually happened
so through you guys and through like
some interesting people like you we
quickly learned that they want to change
the world's warped perspective of iraq
they want to welcome tourists here as
the country slowly opens up
and they want to show the pride they
have in mosul and their hope for its
recovery despite all that the city and
its citizens have been through
[Music]
so at this very location this is where
pope francis actually came on his papal
pop a visit
in march
um and he chose this exact location
where we're standing as it is next to an
old church that has been totally bombed
out i'm going to show you guys the
inside of it and it's
pretty sad to see
oh this is a church
it's totally bombed out
just four years ago
which was a church
on our second day in mosul we set out to
see how the city is making a recovery to
check out the modern side of the city
home to amazing shopping modern cafes
and restaurants and even took a boat
trip down the tigris river
we started our morning however at one of
the oldest buildings in the city an old
castle that was partially destroyed by
isis
[Music]
you've just come down to the river and
from this angle you can really see the
destruction to the castle you can see
here behind me to the left the tower
that has totally collapsed over
you couldn't really see that from up
above
so beautiful there's all these like
cafes along the side of the building
probably a really cool place to be at
night yeah yeah
and this is the boot that we're getting
on
we're getting off now
fun so good and it was so cold so fun
the first time we called the cool breeze
yeah for lunch we decided to try more
traditional food a dish that looked like
a mix between a pancake or tortilla and
a thin pizza that i assure you was super
delicious a popular breakfast food in
iraq apparently we're having le pem it's
kind of like similar to one of the
turkish dishes but this one comes from
iraq it's a super flat tortilla
with kind of meat on top and then an egg
broken on top and uh looks delicious
can't wait to eat it
we've all got these
massively it's so good
for our next stop we headed back to the
old town of mosul where we checked out a
local market
[Music]
inside of the market is one of the more
modern mosques to be found here in mosul
it's small
but very beautiful
[Music]
so i'm really keen to show you guys both
sides of the city of mosul so right now
we're in the newer more modern side of
the city um there's families there's
people walking around lots of women
there's
the street food there's lots of cafes
restaurants shops women's clothing and
all the streets are lit up kind of the
way you would see in other countries
when it's christmas you know they have
all these beautiful colored lights
lining the highway lining the different
roads uh looks really cool
okay guys so i think i explained this
before but uh when you are in the middle
east like in arab countries and you're
at a market you can kind of just walk
around and just pick stuff up and taste
it so there was this guy selling all
these types of nuts and hot nuts so i
just asked him if i could taste one i
did it was really tasty so then i wanted
to buy a whole bag and when i picked out
like how much weight i wanted and got
the bag of nuts he wouldn't let me pay
and i think i've told you guys this
before but it happens all the time here
in iraq that we we go to buy something
and they just won't take our money like
they absolutely refuse and the people
are just so kind and so generous they
just want to show us a good time they
want to welcome tourists and they just
want you to feel welcome here
as you guys could probably see this area
is full of shopping malls there's so
many different malls underground malls
above grand malls and honestly mainly
women's clothing and there's a lot of
women here doing their shopping
one of our guides was just saying that
he doesn't come here a lot but if he
does come here he brings his mom
so guys obviously there's a lot of
traditional restaurants here at mosul
but there are also some super modern
cafes and restaurants so we've come into
a place called gladness which is a
pretty funny name and it's kind of like
a burger bar here in the more modern
area of the city
burgers hello guys are you tired not for
us
[Music]
i'm going to end my video right here
i do hope you enjoyed this video and
hopefully even learned a thing or two
about mosul's past but i also hope you
can see there's actually a lot to see
and do here
and that mosul is indeed open and ready
to welcome taurus back
and that they will welcome you with open
arms
shukran mosul i'll be back
[Music]