The mystery of Ancient Hatra and our military presence there

Hello everyone. Normally I don't post in this forum often but seeing as how I have stumbled into this discovery from my past encounters with ancient ruins I felt like I could shed some light into the ancient times of Iraq.

Hatra (Arabic: الحضر‎ al-Ḥaḍr) is an ancient city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira region of Iraq. It is currently known as al-Hadr, a name which appears once in ancient inscriptions, and it in the ancient Iranian province of Khvarvaran. The city lies 290 km (180 miles) northwest of Baghdad and 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Mosul.

Back In late 2006 on my second deployment to Iraq I was sent south of Mosul to a fob called Q-west. From time to time we would visit the ancient ruins of hatra as shown below.

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The ruins of Hatra still remain somewhat intact despite centuries of aging and decomposition. The locals treat the site with respect as should be since it is one of many ruins still left in Iraq.


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Although I wasn't able to go directly inside the temple, just being outside made me feel like I was one with the ancient ones and the history of what took place all those years ago.

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I am thankful that I was able to get most of these pics from my fellow soldiers from my Battery since I couldn't capture all the angles myself.

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Behind me leads a road to the west where the Hatra temple resides located several miles from where I was stationed.

Since I left the army several months ago. I have been thinking about why most military bases are built not too far from ancient ruins left from the mesopotamia era. Surely this was planned before the invasion of Iraq to not only get the oil but to study these ancient temples and ruins that litter all over Iraq.

I was even able to find this vid that can explain the temple a lot better then I ever can.



I hope you have enjoy the little insight that was presented this evening and hope to show more in the future. Iraq has so much history hidden behind the sands of time and still very many ruins lie dormant, waiting to be discovered. Even since Jesus times has this place been a place of holy grounds and conquest. Only time will tell if we can unlock the very last remnants of the past and learn its dark secrets.

maps.google.com...:en-us:IE-Address&rlz=1I7GWY E&bav=on.1,or.&wrapid=tlif129901442128710&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Iraq&gl=us&ei=IWNtTdvwPMWBOtmnpOQL&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&sqi=2&ve d=0CCYQ8gEwAA

en.wikipedia.org...

www.britannica.com...#

Fun fact: parts of the movie "the exorcist" was filmed here.

Truly amazing, and to see it so well kept after all these years is quite remarkable.

Thank you.

Many moons ago I read on here... that the US Military was looking for Stargates...

could be the why for the bases being next to ancient sites...

beautiful pictures though... thanks for sharing... S&F

Thank you everyone. I couldn't have done this myself without some inspiration by a few people I know. I just wish I could have posted more pics but sadly my hardrive is lost. Maybe fellow troops who have been where I been can offer some pics as well.

Thanks for these pics.The thing that always amazes me is the architetcure buildings today arent put together half that well.Those columns and arches are breath taking just imagine the work that was put into them whew.

Awesome pics. The architecture of those buildings is beautiful. It only proves just how intelligent and advanced our early ancestors really were. In regards to the post about stargates, it reminded me of a documentary I once saw. I can't remember the entire premise of it but it basically explained that somewhere in Iraq is ancient technological knowledge far beyond anything we have today, and this is why our military pushed across Iraq as quickly as it did. Seems TPTB wanted to get there before it was stolen or destroyed.

Saddam rebuilt ancient Babylon. Bush needed over there to capture these ruins and destroy 100's of thousands artifacts pertaining to the assyrian, babylonian, and sumerians. Why would the nation of truth and prosperity (CSA) hire the Smithsonian Institute to dump such artifacts in the ocean to hide and suppress our glorious past? We all use to be spiritually connected to each other and animals. Do some study on dolphins and humans. To this date dolphins still help humans since atlantis' existence. We were created in Africa 450,000 years ago to dig and mine gold. Then the primitive humans were led to a revolt. Migration occurred and present day Iraq became the cradle of life for civilization as we are told by the TPTB. Just remember people your public school education comes from the NEA. Who help fund the NEA you ask? The good ol' Rockefella family.

sice the beginning of the wars i've been laughed at by many for stating that most of the reason is actually pertaining to control of ancient babylon and the power that goes with it.
most of these ruins in, imo, were originally built for many reasons, including power spots [vortexes].

reply to post by ReaPErofSIN


Now that I remember. I heard that most of the artifacts that were left in these ruins were plundered around the time the invasion of Iraq occured. Its sad that some parts of history will forever be lost just because certain factions want to bury the truth of our ancestors and anything else related to the mesopotamians. However Iraq will always be a cursed place from merciless heat to total conquest from foreign countries.

Excellent pictures Stop Loss, and great post!

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say we appreciate the reverence you show these sites, that's not just Iraqi history there, that's all of our history!

Wow man. This is the first time I've heard of these ruins. It's tragic that some of these artifacts got stolen, but isn't that always the case with these places. Wonder how much history has gone missing over the years.
Still very interesting. Would love to go and explore the place myself but I'm sure it's way too dangerous for civilians.

reply to post by Stop-loss!


oh, and btw,
thank you for your service, stop-loss.
no matter what your intentions and reasoning were for signing up,
no matter how your mind changed by being part of the war,
as an anti-war, non-military american civilian, hats off for standing up for what you believe was right.
thanx.

Babylon was the center and the beginning of known civilization. The US has been hunting for lost knowledge as it will give them a tactical advantage over the other countries.

Dude, pause that Hatra video at 1:22 and you will see one of the carvings is of an eagle with a snake in its mouth, almost exactly identical to the imagery in American symbolism...odd considering the nature of your inquiry in this thread.

Very cool...S&F

reply to post by Stop-loss!

I'd heard stories of special operations styled teams penetrating into (and stealing from) the Iraq Museum of Antiquities during the first days of the 2003 invasion. These "mercenaries" left priceless (or highly valuable) jewels and artifacts alone, while removing rare stone tablets and specific artifacts. The impression given was that they were not US Special Ops, but perhaps former/retired special ops guys under the employ of someone who could afford them.

This lead many to the conclusion that TPTB (The Powers That Be) and/or uber-wealthy world elitists wanted specific items from the museum. Perhaps they tried negotiation and perhaps Saddam (or whoever was in charge of the muesum) said, "No." Well, if you are powerful enough, you could feasilby set a few pieces into motion in order to get the artifacts you desired, even if it meant plunging the US into war. These elitists are so far removed from our global civilization that they would not feel the impact of war directly. They're too rich to care.

Fast forward a few years to the present. Imagine these same elitists have a thirst for Egyptian artifacts, all under the control of Zawi Hawass. Zawi would not only say, "No" to any such proposition, ---he's the kind of guy who might say, "Hell no, now leave me alone or I will cut you into little pieces and mummify them." And smile. Well, the elitists would find it more difficult to get Egypt and the US at war. But, they could begin subtle, clandestine (and highly effective) psychological operations, perhaps informational operations, into play that would hopefully lead to the destabilization of the country, creating enough mass chaos in order to allow ANOTHER special operations styled team to enter the Cairo (or Egyptian) Museum of Antiquities.

Sure enough, in the first few days of the civil uprising, Zawi Hawass was at his precious museum with enough people to form a human chain around it. Still, a special operations styled team of "mercenaries" apparently SOMEHOW MANAGED to gain access to the museum and make off with specific artifacts, yet leaving behind precious jewels and gold. The museum reported the crowds of people destroyed mummies and looted, and such. Apparently they are too embarrassed to reveal which pieces/artifacts were stolen by the special ops styled team.

I think it's awful coincidental that when a country that has mass chaos (war, civil uprising, disaster), that special operations styled teams/mercenaries conduct "acquisition operations" (aka theft) in museums that house ancient artifacts. To what end? The simple greed of collectors? Or are they (the elite, TPTB) trying to piece together an ancient mystery that may have direct impact (no pun intended) upon our world today?

reply to post by dragonsmusic


Time travelers maybe. Remember what it says in the Koran about the mighty eagle beating the snot out of Babylon in end times.

I feel that Hatra has more light than darkness left in her. What was interesting was the statue...reminded me a bit of Lady Kwanyin. The hand and the position it was held in looked like a mudra...then again, Hatra according to the short film was a meeting place for all religions and it was on the "main road" of that time frame.

Thanks for posting those photos...glad to see some of the past has still survived.

What beautiful pictures!

The first thing that strikes the eye is that this site is a "multicultural" one -- the architecture of one of the buildings is very distinctly Roman and dates from the time of the Roman rule over the area. Another appears to be Hellenic (Greek) and is probably Parthan.

As to why bases were built in some areas, the answer has to do with resources... how defensible it is and how easy it is to supply in case of a siege. For the ancient Romans, there was a very methodical process that depended on the country and the landscape. In Germany, for instance, many fortresses are built on hills so that they had an easy view of the area and so that any attacking army had to run uphill to get them.

For those of you who find films tiresomely long, here's a link to the UNESCO site on it (it's a World Heritage site) with nice notes on the culture and major buildings
whc.unesco.org...

The Wikipedia article is disappointingly short
en.wikipedia.org...

Thanks so much for the lovely pictures!

I just found this vid that shows more of the Hatra temple. The villages you see in the video look exactly like they did 4-5 years ago when I was still there rolling down the streets. Brings back memories.

Really interesting post S&F thanks for sharing

Amazing to think that somewhere so war torn and insular now was once a place of multiculturalism and tolerance. If they ever invent time travel Ancient Hatra would be an interesting place to visit.