Reeds Only

With all that we have at our disposal, seeing beauty created by necessity and creativity with the most basic of ingredients amazes me.

Sunday evening I happened to catch 60 Minutes' episode of Resurrecting Eden, in which Scott Pelley visited the people living in Iraq on the section of land between the between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The ancient civilization is known as the "Marsh Arabs," also called the Ma'dan, inhabiting where many scholars believe the Garden of Eden existed.  

(The segment was covering the slaughter of the people there by Saddam Hussein, when he diverted the water from the rivers by building six canals to take the water out into the desert and the Persian Gulf, thus emptying the maze of waterways- and the civilization's way of life.)

What I found particularly striking were the huts, called mudhifs, that the people create entirely out of reeds, an ancient, primitive practice.

The reeds are collected, dried, bound together and assembled for each home.

Woven mats cover the tops and floor.

Before the swamps and waterways were wiped out after the 2001 Gulf war, they looked like this.

Fifty percent of the water has been restored to the areas, with plans for an eco-tourism camp in the marshes to open next March to bring attention to the plight of these people.

Just amazing.

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