Young Iraqis celebrate their country’s old maritime heritage by rowing a flotilla of traditional wooden boats down the Tigris River in Baghdad. The nation is currently suffering from a severe drought.
The elongated boats with tapered bows and sterns known as meshhouf have been present “since the time of the Sumerians,” according to event organizer Rashad Salim, and were once a familiar sight across Iraq’s southern waterways and marshlands.
