While men in the marshes fish, women and girls do most of the manual labor including cutting and transporting the reeds.

Inhabitants of the marshes known as the Ma dan share the floating islands where they build reed houses with domesticated water buffalo, usually a household s most valuable possession.

The flexible reeds are used to build arched reed houses in a design unchanged for thousands of years as well as burned for fuel.

Locations of the Ahwar of Southern Iraq, World Heritage Site.

Around 20,000 Marsh Arabs live in southern Iraq.

A woman in Iraq s southern marshes gathering reeds.

Women gather reeds in Iraq's southern marshlands.

He lies under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.

He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.

The marshes today remain one of the poorest areas in Iraq.

The wetlands span thousands of square miles in the middle of desert.

Alwash says he feels vindicated by the UNESCO listing.

The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away.

And they shall turn the rivers far away and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up the reeds and flags shall wither.

But the marshes that survived for thousands of years have taken a beating in recent decades. Iraqi governments since the 1950s began draining parts of the marshes to expand agriculture and drill for oil.

Much of the land along the Gulf Coast is, or was, marshland.

But since Saddam was toppled in 2003, there have been efforts to restore the suffering marsh ecosystems.

There are still threats to the marshes primarily from agricultural runoff as well as drought attributed to climate change.

A 7000 year old seagoing boat made from reeds and tar has been found in Kuwait.

A few years ago, people were looking and laughing at me saying why do you want to restore the marshes?

In the 1980s, at war with Iran, Saddam Hussein sped up their destruction so the marshes couldn't serve as a refuge for fighters.

Cuneiform texts were written on clay tablets, on which symbols were drawn with a blunt reed used as a stylus.

Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples. Being humbled, may it bring bars of silver. Scatter the nations that delight in war.

Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one submit himself with pieces of silver scatter thou the people that delight in war.

Iraqi American environmentalist Azzam Alwash and Nature Iraq, the group he founded, have set up an eco camp in the heart of the marshes.

Some students of ancient history believe the marshes, lined with reeds, teeming with fish and filled with birds, are the site of the biblical Garden of Eden.

On June 17, the UN cultural agency, UNESCO, added the marshlands and the ancient Sumerian cities that once flourished among them to its list of World Heritage Sites.

The rivers provided the further benefits of fish (used both for food and fertilizer), reeds, and clay (for building materials).

The marshes are in one of the safer parts of Iraq, just a few hours from Basra, but there are few foreign visitors.

This is a kenaf clinic. You get seed and you grow it in a plot of land, and then once and it grows 14 feet in a month.

Bufallo milk, a staple of the diet here, is also boiled over reed fires and turned into a thick cream to be sold.

Its wall consists of three layers, surrounding a central chamber, which is connected to the water by a ramp, also composed of reeds.

The lowlands in the west are mostly swampy the reed filled marshes of the area are called ciénagas by the people of Colombia.

Sumerian clay tablets from more than 5,000 years ago portray arched houses built from reeds the same way they are still built today.

The marshlands are on a main migratory bird path from Africa. With the water and fish stocks restored, pelicans, flamingoes and marbled teal ducks fill the skies.

Residents living on tiny floating islands fish, tend water buffalo and gather reeds. There is almost no health care and few schools.

It builds a spherical nest among reeds in up to 1.5 m (5 ft) deep water, usually about 20 cm (8 in) above the water.

For Yahweh will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their Asherim, provoking Yahweh to anger.

For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger.

When Iraqi Shiites, Kurds, and Marsh Arabs rebelled against Hussein, they believed that American forces would protect them against their brutal dictator s superior firepower.

Visitors can stay in modernized reed houses, go out on boats, and eat breakfasts of water buffalo cream and flatbread baked over reed fires.

The material for the nest, which is 25 to 30 cm (10 to 12 in) in diameter and 9 to 11 cm (about 4 in) in height, comes from the surrounding reeds.

(ii) Fireless cookers. These are baskets made out of reeds whose inner sides are well lined with warm and insulating materials that prevent the loss of heat from a boiling pan inside them.

Production Brown sugar is often produced by adding sugarcane molasses to completely refined white sugar crystals to more carefully control the ratio of molasses to sugar crystals and to reduce manufacturing costs.